In his Ted Talk, Bob Mankoff reveals, “from 1974 to 1977 I submitted 2,000 cartoons to The New Yorker, and got 2,000 cartoons rejected by The New Yorker.”
- In 1977 his first cartoon was published
- In 1980 he got a New Yorker contract
- And in 1997 he became THE CARTOON EDITOR OF THE NEW YORKER
He had to fail 2000 times before he even started.
But the eventual payoff was big.
And this is true whether you want to grow your business, improve your sex life or learn a second language.
Speaking of second languages, research shows the more mistakes you make, the faster you learn.
When you’re just repeating the phrases you already know:
“Bonjour, comment ça va?” “Ca va bien.”
“Quel temps fait-il?” “Il fait du soleil.”
You probably aren’t going to make any mistakes but you aren’t learning new vocabulary or practicing new verb tenses either.
Whereas when you’re trying to describe soccer as, “Le sport avec le ballon noir et blanc” you’re stretching, using old vocabulary in new ways, and learning the language faster.
One more failure story:
Myshkin Ingawale tried to make a technological tool to test for anemia 31 times. And failed 31 times in a row. Then on his 32nd attempt, he succeeded.
Imagine Bob stopped trying after 500 cartoon submissions? Imagine Myshkin stopped after 30 attempts?
Failing doesn’t always feel good but learning from your mistakes and iterating is what’ll allow you to succeed.
So after a big fall, take the night off. Watch a romantic comedy and cry it out or call your best friend and share your disappointment.
But if you really want to achieve your goal, keep going.
You’re already on your way there,
Bryn
PS My clients have:
- Improved their sex lives
- Made more money in their businesses
- And achieved what they initially thought was impossible
If you sense it could be helpful to have someone who’s 100% on your side on the days when you fall, I want to offer you a FREE one-hour consultation.
We’ll explore what your impossible goal is, what might be getting in the way and how to overcome it.
