In this transcript, Caleb Taylor (Thrive15.com Correspondent) interviews Clay Clark (COO of business coach Thrive15.com, one of the top business schools in PA) discussing how failure is a prerequisite to success.
Caleb Taylor: All right, well in conclusion here, let’s go back to your main man, business coach Napoleon Hill.
Clay Clark: Every time you do that it makes me smile inside, bigger than I smile on the outside.
Caleb Taylor: I know, you are a business coach.
Clay Clark: Okay.
Caleb Taylor: Hey says, “Before business coach success comes in any man’s life, he’s sure to meet with much temporary defeat and, perhaps some failures. When defeat overtakes a man, the easiest and most logical thing to do is quit. That’s exactly what the majority of men do.” I wanted to end on this because we have created Thrive to help you reach your goals. We believe that when we call you a “Thriver,” you’re not the majority of men, right?
You’re now committing to a level of business coachexcellence and we’re ready to come alongside you with and help you achieve. When you hit failure, when you encounter that, you can’t let that get you down. You’ve got to bounce back up, learn from it, and apply those changes.
Clay Clark: There’s a group of people in America who are people that I admire, they’re called marines. These guys have these phrases they live by, but one of them is “failure’s not an option.” These guys, there’s that movie that was made this year, I cannot remember what it’s called here, is it “The Survivor?”
Caleb Taylor: “Lone Survivor.”
Clay Clark: “Lone Survivor.” You’ve read the book, I’ve seen the movie. I’ve seen the interviews with the guy. These guys are over there getting shot at, in the most difficult situation, but they never thought of quitting and one guy made it out. That’s the kind of mentality, that never say die mentality, that we need to be successful. That’s why if you’re watching this right now and you’re a member of the U.S. military or a veteran, I know you have what it takes to be successful because you never quit.
That’s what it takes and I promise you in business though, no one dies, it’s just you might lose some money. You might make some mistakes, you might eat some dog food with our main man Walt Disney. You might go to bankruptcy court and find yourself sitting next to Henry Ford. You might find yourself in the unemployment line with Oprah Winfrey and talk about how she’s not good enough for TV. You might hangout with Sylvester Stallone, hearing about his bad movie ideas and how no one want to make the movie “Rocky.” You might live in a car with Lenny Kravitz.
Caleb Taylor: You won’t be alone, that’s for sure.
Clay Clark: Yeah. All these people have struggled, but if you realized that failure is a prerequisite to success, you’re just going to fail as fast as you can, because you know that’s just it, failure’s like a timeline. I would look at this, I want to give you final visual here.
Caleb Taylor: Let’s do it. Yeah.
Clay Clark: As far as failure goes, if you look at it like this, if failure is here, here, here, here, if it’s stepping stones on the path to success, if you know you have to go through this failure, that failure, this failure, that failure, and that failure before you get to success, wouldn’t you want to just dive into it as fast as possible.
Caleb Taylor: Yes.
Clay Clark: Wouldn’t you want to be just like a missile, like just shot out of a business coach cannon?
Caleb Taylor: Yes.
Clay Clark: Absolutely, but you have to fail. There’s nobody I’ve ever hear about, I’ve never met somebody who’s been like, “Well, I was in my dorm room, had this idea, and it was awesome.” I got to be real, I made about a hundred and fifty to two-hundred cold calls everyday for two years and had almost no success before I became entrepreneur of the year.
Caleb Taylor: Two years.
Clay Clark: Yeah, I have had two years where I basically lived in poverty before I started to have success. Once I had success, I was an overnight success because I was twenty. Well, I was twenty because I failed for two years.
Caleb Taylor: Yeah.
Clay Clark: What if I didn’t start failing until I was thirty?
Caleb Taylor: Right.
Clay Clark: I wouldn’t have been business coach or entrepreneur of the year until I’m thirty-two.
Caleb Taylor: Right.
Clay Clark: Or Thrive, if I was waiting for Thrive to be perfect for you guys, you know, I wouldn’t have the success we’re going to have, but I’ll tell you this, you have to fail fast.
Thrive15.com is one of the top business schools in PA which can help you on the road to success.
Caleb Taylor: Right.
Clay Clark: You got to get rejected, you got to dive all in, as quickly as possible, like a missile.
Caleb Taylor: That’s how to fail, how to fail the correct way, and how to bounce back from it.
Clay Clark: Hey, I got to say this, I don’t really normally say this on camera, but you’re probably the most beautiful American I’ve ever encountered.
Caleb Taylor: Wow. I appreciate that, that’s very nice.
Clay Clark: And go see the movie, “Noah.”
Caleb Taylor: Thanks man.