by: AskPat 544 Transcript
Pat Flynn: Hey, what's up everybody? Pat Flynn here and welcome to Episode 544 of Ask Pat. Thank you so much for joining me today. As always I'm here to help you by answering your online business questions five days a week.
Alright, here's today's question from Andrew.
Andrew: Hey Pat, Andrew from the US here living in Switzerland. I just began this journey in the passive income world and just wanna say thank you so far. You've helped me with some problems. So I just wanna say that right off the bat: My first experiment website is based on SEO, Google Adsense, and varying programs, just basically to get my feet wet. I've done my research, found a niche that doesn't really have a leader, or that's what my research has found. And basically running along but just having trouble pulling the trigger with buying the whole hosting domain and launching the site. It's not the money, rather the fear of failure. I'm sure a lot of people have the same experience. In your experience, should I continue my research, the preparation and trading the content that we're comfortable with, or do I embrace this opportunity by launching my site with all my fears and doubts for a valuable learning experience? Thanks again buddy.
Pat Flynn: Hey what's up Andrew, thank you so much for the question today, I really appreciate it and your kind words. Here's what I'm gonna say about failure. Failure is a very necessary thing to go through as an entrepreneur. You have to go through failures. If you ask any successful entrepreneur out there if they've ever failed, they'll say, “Absolutely!” And the fact that it was actually required for them to get to where they're at now. That's how you know. And here's a quote that I'm gonna start with, that has changed how I feel about fear and why it's important to think about it in this way, to embrace the fear like you said. And that is, “I would much rather live a life full of ‘oh wells' than a life full of ‘what if's.'”
What if Andrew, for example, every day that you don't pull the trigger on this, is a day that somebody on the other end who needs that information is, they're just not getting it? And it could be something that could potentially even change their life even. And even if it doesn't seem like that on the surface a lot of times it can. I mean I remember when I first started selling products for GreenExamAcademy.com, I was just so blown away by how selling a study guide, for example, could change somebody's life. So you know I was getting these really personal emails coming back from people who were like, “Pat thank you so much,” and again they were calling me by name, and again, only made me wish that I had done it sooner.
Now there are a lot of failures that have happened along the way, with that business and several other businesses too and even with SmartPassiveIncome.com and I definitely, definitely know that they were very important to help me get to where I'm at now. And so, Andrew, my advice for you would be to pull the trigger, you've done the research already, probably a lot more than what a lot of people do, but the most important thing that's gonna happen is as you go, you're going to learn a whole lot more. Because we could read all these books, we could listen to all these podcasts, we can watch all these videos, but they don't do anything for us. What will do things for us are actually doing things for us, so take action, execute, and know that failure is an option, this is what the MythBusters say on the Science channel. Failure is an option, but the true failing is giving up or not even starting at all.
Now there's a great book out there, Andrew, that I would recommend, and this what I would recommend for everybody to read it was a big eye-opener for me when I read it when I was in fear several times in my past. I've reread this a number of different times, and that is The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. And it is a book that will just incredibly change your mindset in terms of how you view failure. Steven Pressfield talks about how, whatever we do in anything, these big things could potentially change our lives and the lives of others. You know, he compares it to like a tree. When the tree grows, as it grows bigger, as our dreams often do, there's immediately a shadow that is cast over us, right, or the tree casts the shadow at the same time, that shadow could be the fear of failure, also the fear of success, arrogance, and just procrastination, there's a lot of things that go along with these big dreams that we have and often times the bigger the dream the bigger the shadow, right?
But he also says that the self-doubt, this fear is actually a sign, and I've learned this to be the case too. It's a sign that whatever it is that you're trying to do is worth doing, and oftentimes the bigger the dream, the more fear there is, which means the more that you have to do it. I've always noticed that all the best things that have happened in life have been preceded by some sort account of fear. So Andrew this fear that you're having now it means that this thing is meaningful to you because you want it to work, but because of that you're gonna do the work required to make it work even if it does end up meaning some failures along the way it's when you aren't nervous at all that I would be most scared, if that makes sense. And I've had to tell myself that so many times when starting my podcasts, when starting my business, when selling anything, when getting up on stage for the first time. And even when I get up on stage now I fear it I wanna throw up right before-hand but that's how I know that I actually care and that's what forces me to rehearse and to make it great and when it's all over, it's definitely worth it. But, you're gonna fail, and that's fine, as long as you keep going.
So for you Andrew, for everybody else out there who's listening, that thing that you thought about doing, that you're just not doing, because you are scared? Good, you're scared, that means you care, now go and do it. That's a sign. You're not gonna die, right? This is our internal security system that we've developed over thousands of years as animals, just to stop us from doing something that could potentially hurt us, but this thing you're likely going to do isn't something that's going to kill you, so move forward with it. Know that there is a potential for failure. Obviously you don't want to fail, and if, you know, I'm not going to lie to you failing sucks, right? But it's also great because you've come to a point where you know that that didn't work and you can try the next thing. This is very similar to conversations I have with my own son who tries things and he fails. You know what, you just didn't get it yet. Really trying to drill that in his head and it just shows you that these are feelings and anxiety and things that kids have, but we don't really grow out of it. We learn to deal with it, we learn to take it as a sign that what we're doing it actually worth it and that there's always something amazing on the other end. There's always something amazing on the other end. That's your kick in the pants for today.
So thanks Andrew for the question, hopefully everybody else out there has some inspiration now and some motivation to move forward on that thing that you thought about doing for so long. Andrew, I'm gonna send you an AskPat t-shirt for having your question featured here on the show, thank you so much. And for everybody out there who has a question, please go ahead and leave it at AskPat.com, you can ask right there on that page.
I appreciate all of you, and if you have a second just go ahead and go to iTunes and leave a review for Ask Pat, that would help out very much.
And last but not least, here's a quote today from Thomas Watson. He said, “To be successful, you have you have your heart in your business and your business in your heart.”
Cheers, take care, and I'll see you next week in the next episode of Ask Pat. Thanks everyone. Bye.
