Failing Forward

In 2002 and 2003, I failed dismally. In fact, looking back at my life, the two failures I experienced during this period are arguably the biggest failures I have ever achieved. Yes, I know I achieved the failure. And I'm totally proud of those failures.

Hello, welcome to the half hour with Jonah Mungoshi. And today we are talking about Failing Forward.

Let me take you back to the year 2002. So, there I was August 2002, in a massive auditorium in San Antonio, Texas in USA in front of an audience of about 2000 people. Boy, was I going to dazzle them with my brilliance! I had prepared a knockout speech. I was ready to mesmerize them with my eloquence,

And I was sure I would walk away the World Champion of Public Speaking for 2002. So sure was I that moments before I went on stage, I had phoned my boss at my old workplace, I was then an executive in one of the major banks in this country. And I told my boss, "I am resigning from my job, because in a matter of hours, I will be crowned the World Champion of Public Speaking. And I'm sorry, but I won't need that job, because I'll be in demand to speak to audiences throughout the world."

Well, what happened? They started by announcing the winner in third place, and then second place, and finally first place, I hadn't made it first, so I wasn't the World Champion. I hadn't made it in second place so I wasn't the runner up. I was the second runner up, I had come third in the World Championship of Public Speaking. And Boy, was I crushed! I actually cried, literally shed tears, because there's a world of difference between number one and number three.

Let's talk about 2003. I worked for it. I rehearsed. I practiced. I even changed my diet regime. I went to endurance training just to be ready for it. What was I preparing for? I was preparing to break the Guinness World Record for the longest speech. And in April of 2003, I spoke nonstop for 36 hours in an attempt to break that Guinness World Record.

And I was totally proud of myself when I achieved that monumental Feat. Well, I submitted my claim to Guinness World Records, supported by the reports from all the assessors, who had been taking turns to attend the speech and to note down that I had adhered to the guidelines. Guinness then came back to me and said, "Well done for speaking for 36 hours. That's amazing. But unfortunately for you, someone in India has spoken for 52 hours," Once again I was devastated.

Have you ever failed at that level, have you attempted something so big, so massive, that you wonder whether you'll be able to survive the failure? Well, in the space of two consecutive years, I'd achieved two monumental failures.

Important Concepts

1. Failure is the breakfast of champions
2. Wise approach to venturing into an endeavour involves pursuing big goals with minimal risk.
3. Foolish way of venturing is to gamble – big goals and big risks.

So why am I proud of them? Because I have since learned that failure is the breakfast of champions.

There's an urban legend that Elon Musk before he went on his amazing journey as an entrepreneur, decided to live on $1 a day. He tried it and he realized that he could actually survive on one US dollar a day. He is quoted as said that once he realized that, he was able to venture into any business that he wanted because he knew that even if the worst comes to the worst, he could live on one US dollar a day.

You look at Strive Masiyiwa, we all know the success he has achieved as a business person. But how many of you know that he actually achieved some failures before he got to where he is? And yet most of us are so scared of failure, that we won't venture to attempt that which gives us a chance to achieve success.

So, this is what I'm talking about today. Failing forward. If you analyse it, you realize that although I failed big time, I had not gambled. I didn't emerge from the failure owing anybody anything. This, to me, is a wise way of attempting your big ventures, your big hairy audacious goals (BHAG). And there is a foolish way of doing it. The foolish way is to gamble. The wise way is to do it big time, but with minimum risk.

And this is what I'll be talking about. Join me on the other side as we unpack this topic, Failing Forward