Welcome to One Thing Better. Each week, the editor in chief of Entrepreneur magazine (that's me) shares one way to achieve a breakthrough at work — and build a career or company you love.
Today's edition is sponsored by doola, the best way to set up your US business — from anywhere, fast, and in just a few clicks. More details at the bottom.
You failed. And it stings.
Maybe a project fell through. A pitch got rejected. A relationship ended. Whatever it was, you can't shake the feeling that you suck, that everything you make sucks, and that you'll never succeed again.
Today, I'll share a simple mental shift that'll make you feel better, helping you move forward with excitement instead of dread.
I call it The Failure Number. It's a way to stop thinking about failure as the end of something, and to start viewing it as a step towards success.
But before I explain how it works, I'll tell you about a friend of mine who failed in a big way — and how it inspired this idea.
When the big deal falls apart
My friend John (not his real name) runs a massive company. A few years ago, he engineered a merger with his largest competitor, and he was going to be the CEO. It was a huge deal and made lots of headlines.
Then the deal fell apart.
I called John to ask how he was doing. He said he was disappointed, of course, but then he remembered this:
"Do you know about when Netflix tried to sell itself to Blockbuster?" he asked me.
Yes, I said. In 2000, Netflix tried to sell itself to Blockbuster for $50 million. Blockbuster laughed Netflix out of the room.
"I imagined Netflix's founders in that moment," John explained. "They must have thought: We failed. But then they had a choice — to consider this the end of their story, or just one moment in a much longer story that hasn't been written yet."
We all know the rest: Netflix conquered Blockbuster, became a generation-defining company, and this "failure" is now a funny footnote on the path to success. Their longer story was (and continues to be) written.
The Failure Number
John's story sparked something I now think about all the time. I call it The Failure Number.
Here's how it works: Everything you want in life comes with a Failure Number.
That's the number of times you must fail before you succeed.
- Closing a big sale? Maybe your Failure Number is 9.
- Finding the right romantic partner? Maybe it's 11.
- Writing a book? Maybe it's 5.
Now imagine if you knew that number in advance. What would happen?
Well, you'd be very excited for every failure — because each one would move you closer to your goal! If you knew you had to write five failed books before hitting the best-seller list, you'd crank through those five easily.
In other words: Failure doesn't inherently feel bad. Failure can feel great, so long as it's recognized as progress.
So why does failure sting so much?
Simple: In real life, we can't know our Failure Number.
We are not fortune tellers. We have no idea how many failures are required. And because we don't know, it feels like the failures could go on infinitely.
So here's what we can do: When we fail, we can think, "I am now one number closer than I was before."
Whatever that number is — if it's five failures, ten failures, twenty failures — every failure simply means that you're one failure down from the ultimate number.
This reframes every failure as progress. The version of you that ultimately succeeds will be more knowledgeable, versatile, and resilient than the person you are now — and your job today is to simply move through the failures, gathering the knowledge and experiences you can, to become that person.
How I use this
I think about this for myself all the time. For example, here's something I've failed at for many years: making a TV show.
Want a sampling of my failures?
- A novel I co-wrote with my wife was optioned, renewed, and then dropped.
- Countless ideas of mine led to exciting producer meetings, then nothing.
- I developed a show with a big TV star, but we've had no buyer.
- I was in talks to host a business show, then the producers ghosted me.
Am I bummed? Sure, a little. But honestly, I just keep thinking about The Failure Number.
I mean, what is the Failure Number for a TV show? Fifty? More? This means I'm in the early innings. My job right now isn't to succeed; it's to keep failing.
Disappointing, but not defining
Now here's the ending to John's story.
His big deal collapsed, and he had a choice to make: Does he treat the failure as defining, or just disappointing?
Much like Netflix's cofounders, he chose to keep going.
That situation was maybe five years ago. Today, I'm happy to report that John was right: His company has thrived, and revenue reached nearly $2 billion last year.
It just goes to show: All of life happens on a continuum. You can never be sure how close or far you are from success, but we must remember that today's outcomes are just a small part of a larger story.
Which means every setback gets you closer.
Which means every disappointment is progress in disguise.
Which means our true goal is to just keep going.
That's how to do one thing better.
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Final notes for today...
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That's all for this week! See you next Tuesday.
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