{"id":13298,"date":"2010-09-22T22:10:00","date_gmt":"2010-09-23T05:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=13298"},"modified":"2010-09-23T14:55:26","modified_gmt":"2010-09-23T21:55:26","slug":"failing-up-the-big-secret-to-the-secret-to-success-is-this-the-secret-is-completely-obvious-to-everyone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/13298\/failing-up-the-big-secret-to-the-secret-to-success-is-this-the-secret-is-completely-obvious-to-everyone\/","title":{"rendered":"Failing up: The big secret to &#8220;the secret to success&#8221; is this: The &#8220;secret&#8221; is completely obvious to everyone."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I got a speeding ticket today. Oops.<\/p>\n<p>The other week, I had what could have been a nice real estate transaction fall apart because I skipped a fundamental step, thinking it unnecessary, only to trip on it later.<\/p>\n<p>Worst of all, a new software project I&#8217;ve been working on is failing, taking the SplendorQuest server down with it &#8212; as you may have noticed. I&#8217;m having to take it apart now &#8212; which just by itself has been a major undertaking.<\/p>\n<p>O! Woe is me!<\/p>\n<p>Not. I got a speeding ticket, which took about five minutes out of an otherwise hugely productive day. I worked in the car on my iPhone while the cop pressed hard to make carbon sets with a ball-point pen.<\/p>\n<p>I blew a great deal, but every time I do something like that, I learn from my mistake and do better from then on.<\/p>\n<p>And even as my one mad-scientist project burns down the lab, I had another one go live this week with, so far, very impressive results.<\/p>\n<p>What&#8217;s my point?<\/p>\n<p>First, if you&#8217;re doing something you&#8217;ve never done before, there&#8217;s a good chance you&#8217;ll fail &#8212; which is completely obvious to everyone.<\/p>\n<p>Second, the only possible way to succeed at anything is to press on regardless, even at the risk of repeated failures &#8212; which is also obvious.<\/p>\n<p>And third, &#8220;the secret to success&#8221; consists of focusing on the second proposition and not the first &#8212; which, yet again, is news to no one.<\/p>\n<p>I can be thick, I know it, but I&#8217;m actually having to think about this stuff. My whole life, I&#8217;ve done huge things, big, big tasks, and I&#8217;ve never thought much about the motivations driving my work. I want my work <em>done<\/em> &#8212; that&#8217;s what drives me.<\/p>\n<p>Until just lately, I had never thought about the way I work in the context of the formal idea of &#8220;goal-setting.&#8221; I&#8217;ve heard and read enough on the topic to know what people are talking about, I think, but I never made any connection to my own life.<\/p>\n<p>For one thing, the goals were so abstract they seemed meaningless to me. Who doesn&#8217;t want to go to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/13298\/failing-up-the-big-secret-to-the-secret-to-success-is-this-the-secret-is-completely-obvious-to-everyone\/#more-13298\" class=\"more-link\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I got a speeding ticket today. Oops. The other week, I had what could have been a nice real estate transaction fall apart because I skipped a fundamental step, thinking it unnecessary, only to trip on it later. Worst of all, a new software project I&#8217;ve been working on is failing, taking the SplendorQuest server [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,212],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-13298","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-egoism-in-action","7":"category-flourishing","9":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5176,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/5176\/why-bloggers-fail-to-become-top-producers\/","url_meta":{"origin":13298,"position":0},"title":"Why Bloggers Fail To Become Top Producers","author":"Brian Brady","date":"October 25, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I know your secret.\u00a0 Honestly...I do. You aren't knocking the ball out of the park, regardless of your blogging effort.\u00a0 You play around on Twitter, Facebook, Active Rain, and might even comment on Bloodhound Blog.\u00a0 You're probably REALLY smart and can't believe that you're having problems in business.\u00a0 I know\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Blogging&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.paypal.com\/en_US\/i\/scr\/pixel.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13168,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/13168\/your-right-to-say-nothing\/","url_meta":{"origin":13298,"position":1},"title":"Your Right to Say Nothing","author":"Damon Chetson","date":"September 5, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm going to give everyone a little unsolicited information. It's a free gift from me to you, partly paying you all back for all the great advice I receive on Bloodhound Blog. Call it educational. Let's just say I'm in a patriotic mood. Labor Day and all that. And when\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Flourishing&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Flourishing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/flourishing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17590,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/17590\/overnight-news-face-masks-are-a-joke-but-staying-away-from-sick-people-works-great-working-apart-from-each-other-makes-huge-sense\/","url_meta":{"origin":13298,"position":2},"title":"Overnight News: Face masks are a joke, but staying away from sick people works great. Working apart from each other makes huge\u00a0sense.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"December 11, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Two confessions: First, I've always been the guy who works sick. I get respiratory syndromes that last for weeks, and I promise I have shed them to others. Second, I have become the guy who is expert at not getting respiratory syndromes that last for weeks \u2013 this as a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Group Therapy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Group Therapy","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/group-therapy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ya think it's easy?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/BHBNewTopImage-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11400,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/11400\/various-thoughts-on-small-business-tools\/","url_meta":{"origin":13298,"position":3},"title":"Various thoughts on small business tools","author":"Damon Chetson","date":"February 25, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"1. Google Voice I know there's been some sporadic discussion here about Google Voice: whether it's useful\/wise to use as a business phone number, and about the quality of its transcriptions. I've been very pleased with it in terms of the call routing functionality, and the integration with my Droid\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2485,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2485\/buying-countrywide-why-bank-of-america-is-the-wrong-buyer\/","url_meta":{"origin":13298,"position":4},"title":"Buying Countrywide:  Why Bank of America is the WRONG Buyer","author":"Brian Brady","date":"January 11, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Countrywide (CFC) has been acquired by Bank of America. This should come as no surprise to Bloodhound readers; we discovered the weakness at CFC last Spring and speculated about the price last Summer. Robert Kerr, Matt Heaton, and Bob Wilson, all Bloodhound readers, tipped me off to conjecture, asked all\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Disintermediation&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2785,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2785\/unraveled-by-unchained-or-why-i-put-a-leash-on-my-spring-break-plans\/","url_meta":{"origin":13298,"position":5},"title":"Unraveled by Unchained, or: Why I put a leash on my Spring Break plans.","author":"Teri Lussier","date":"March 16, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"When I heard that Bloodhound was planning a conference, I cringed. Then I immediately made plans to go- not because I thought that this conference would be different- the truth is I didn't think it would be different, oh me of little faith. I made plans to go because I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Marketing&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13298"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13299,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13298\/revisions\/13299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}