Design, Business, and quite frankly every area of life, It is shocking how many lost more than they won. That sounds extremely counterintuitive, but If we think about it most successful people in all areas of life have failed more than they have succeeded.
We look at life in very rudimentary ways. either you are a winner or a loser. Do we assume that winners are those who won more than they lost, but is that really the case? That's what society wants you to think, but its is categorically false.
Society’s Idea of a Winner
We go to school and who gets the praise? The students that get the highest grades mean they won more than they lost. Even getting the same number of questions right and wrong is still considered a failing grade. Is that how life works? Do I need to be right 90 percent of the time? It might be for school, but in life, it rarely seems to matter how often your right in order to succeed.
We admire celebrities, athletes, people of business, and most who leaders in their fields. The fact of the matter is how little you actually have to be right to be a leader in your field. What does it actually take to succeed if it not the number of times you win? I will take a look in different areas of life and examine how the top performers how little they won to succeed.
Business
Business is the most misleading field most of us can go in. We start our careers and later our own businesses winning all the time. The fact of the matter is most business people are career failures. Most have only had one great idea, but that idea went on to change the world.
I was watching a Documentary Called “Trader”, which follows Billionaire hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones, and how he looks at the market. In a clip, he actually admits that he is wrong more than he is right. He goes on to explain that he expects trades to make him 5X his money and that he can be wrong 3 times and still win.
Most titans of business are known for that one win. Microsoft, Amazon, Google. They only had to be “right” once. It is that one idea that pays for the rest of the losses that you incurred. Even within a successful business, there are many failed products that are financed by the sure winners. At Google, their revenue from a few monster products pays for all the failed products, and the new projects they might want to explore.
The media and society, in general, are willing to overlook the countless failures to marvel at the achievements of that one great success. We dwell on that one success, the idea that took that person to legendary status, and refuse to understand the years of failed attempts and failed business ventures. Wal-Mart failed at its first go. Apple, FedEx, and Nike were on the brink of bankruptcy. Even with that one great idea came many failures to make it into a success.
Sports
The person who hits the most Home Runs in Baseball is the king the legend. I remember when Barry Bonds Broke the Home Run record, that ball sold for thousands. You would think that one of the greatest hitters in the game would hit the ball most of the time. Not even close. He averaged around 30 percent. Home Run Hits? less than 10 percent. Imagine in school if they are told to get more than 10 percent and you will break one of the great records in sports. Crazy.
Same for basketball
The average field goal percentage is consistently under 40 percent. 3 pointers? Until the past two years, it was under 10 percent, and even with the crazy last two seasons, it was at 12 percent. The people at the top of one of the most popular games in the world miss more than they made in their career, and still, they are winners. I can go on about almost every sport. Not to discount these athletes' incredible performance. If it was easy everyone could do it, but it does make me wonder what we actually need for success.
Design
We look at the great designs of the world, The Ipod, The Dyson vacuum, The Burj Khalifa, and we see the incredible design, perfect, refined. Probably more than any other field design and other creative pursuits deal with the most failures or what we call “interactions”. The products themselves go through dozen of interactions. Components within in those designs also go through dozens of iterations.
Behind every great design, marketing campaign, and everything else, was dozens of failed ideas. It only took one design. It only took one design to catapult designers into stardom. From that one success designers tend to build on it and they create a style, a brand. Want a building over 2000 feet? Call Adrian Smith. Want crazy huge balloon sculptures, call Jeff Koons.
Many Designers, artists,s and other creatives' success comes from one central, successful idea, at is modified and made better over time. Most design is not a one-and-done deal. It is a journey that evolves with time. Buildings will become eco-friendly, grow taller, and every architect will have their idea that will make their mark in the general landscape.
We Are all Failures. Successful People Just Never Gave Up
We will all fail. No one has a perfect track record. Growing up with Kobe Bryant, I was taught to rest at the end and not in the middle. The deciding factors of success are widespread, and everybody is on their own journey, but how we deal with failure will determine our fate.
If you have the conviction and feel your ideas will help move the world forward, keep going till they realized it. If you lose interest or motivation and move on, it was never your mission in the first place, and that's ok. Boxers get punched repeatedly and still show the next day, skipping to the gym. I probably would cry and not come back. That's probably why I am not a professional boxer.
Understand your mission. Find those convictions that will get you through the hard days. Find that one thing you love so much you will be willing to fail every day, and still show up tomorrow. It's not easy being successful. I haven’t found it myself ( I have big goals). it takes that one thing that makes the rest of mundane life, seem exciting.
Fail Forward. Iterate. Show up every day.