3669: Failure is Okay by JD Roth of Get Rich Slowly on Money Mindset

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[00:00:41] This is Optimal Finance Daily, Failure is Okay by JD Roth of GetRichSlowly.org. And I'm Justin Malek. I read to you every day with permission from the authors to help you save more, earn more and invest the rest. So with that, let's get right into it as we optimize your life.

[00:01:07] Failure is okay by JD Roth of GetRichSlowly.org. Yesterday, for the first time in my 40 and a half years on this earth, I went ice skating. Initially, I was scared to try, but I eventually gave in to the taunts from my 8 and 10-year-old friends.

[00:01:25] I love roller skating, and I'm not too bad at it. But the ice skating, well, it sucked. It took me 8 minutes to make it around the rink for the first time, clinging to the wall, my shins in pain. It took me 5 minutes to make it around a second time, 4 minutes for round 3. My first half hour on the ice was an exercise in frustration. I couldn't make it more than a few feet without falling or lunging for the wall.

[00:01:54] Worst of all, I had to swallow my pride and accept advice from Tristan, Emma, and Harrison, my grade school guides. Emma especially was keen to skate around with me, saying, You're doing great, JD. Good, good. By the end of afternoon, I could make it around the rink on my own. My steps were shaky and uncertain, but ultimately, my personal best was 2 and a half laps before falling or grabbing the wall.

[00:02:21] I'll never be an Elvis Stojko, nor even a Tonya Harding, but now I can say I've been ice skating. I could have let my early failures and frustrations get me down. I could have left the ice and said, I'm not doing this anymore. Instead, I stuck with it. I'm glad I did. The ability to keep going in the face of failure is critical to success when learning to skate, and when learning to manage your money.

[00:02:49] Nobody's perfect. We all make mistakes with money every day. I've made tons in the past, and I continue to make them. Here are just a few examples. I managed to take on over $35,000 in consumer debt before turning things around. I tried, man failed, to repay my debt several times before stumbling on the debt snowball method, which worked for me.

[00:03:15] Before I embraced the idea of index funds, I repeatedly poured money into stocks that tanked. When I bought my used Mini Cooper last spring, I let emotion override my better judgment and ended up paying more for the car and getting less for my trade-in than I should have. I could name dozens of other examples, big and small. But the key is, every time I realize I've made a financial mistake,

[00:03:41] I try to learn from it so I don't repeat it in the future. Sometimes I do repeat my mistakes, but I try not to. Instead, I try to fail forward. Building success from the ashes of failure. In Failing Forward, John C. Maxwell writes that there are seven key abilities that allow successful people to overcome failure instead of taking each setback personally.

[00:04:09] Successful people, number one, reject rejection. Successful people don't blame themselves when they fail. They take responsibility for each setback, but they don't take the failure personally. Number two, view failure as temporary. Maxwell writes, quote, People who personalize failure see a problem as a whole they're permanently stuck in,

[00:04:37] but achievers see any predicament as temporary. Number three, view each failure as an isolated incident. Successful people don't define themselves by individual failures. They recognize that each setback is a small part of the whole. Number four, have realistic expectations. This one is huge. Too many people start big projects, such as paying off their debt,

[00:05:07] with the unrealistic expectation that they'll see immediate results. Success takes time. When you pursue anything worthwhile, there are going to be bumps along the way. And remember, the perfect is the enemy of the good. Number five, focus on strengths. This was one of the biggest lessons I took away from Tim Ferriss' The 4-Hour Workweek.

[00:05:32] When I interviewed Ferriss last year, I asked him to expand on this idea. He told me, Focus on leveraging and amplifying your strengths, which allows you to multiply your results. Fix any fatal weaknesses to the extent that they prevent you from reaching your goals. But perfection isn't the path to your objectives. Finding ways to cater to your strengths is. Number six, vary approaches. Maxwell writes, quote,

[00:06:02] Achievers are willing to vary their approaches to problems. That's important in every walk of life, not just business, end quote. If one approach doesn't work for you, if it brings repeated failure, then try something else. Maxwell is saying that to fail forward, you must do what works for you, not necessarily what works for other people. And number seven, bounce back.

[00:06:29] Finally, successful people are resilient. They don't let one error keep them down. They learn from their mistakes and move on. These seven points form a firm foundation for dealing with failure in all parts of life, including personal finance. As you pay off your debt, as you learn to invest, as you cut your spending, accept that some failure is inevitable. But you are not your mistakes.

[00:06:58] Own them, learn from them, and move on. And remember, good habits keep small mistakes manageable. It's never too late to change direction, to start making smart choices. If you're 40 and don't have retirement savings, you can start saving tomorrow. If you're 30 and staggering under the weight of credit card debt, you can cut up your cards and make a commitment to change direction.

[00:07:24] The wonder of the future is that it can be built upon the ashes of the past. At 40, I can look at who I am and can connect the dots back through my life. Though I regret not saving for retirement when I was younger, though I regret accumulating massive credit card debt, though I regret living a consumerist lifestyle, I see now that these experiences made me the man I am today.

[00:07:50] Without them, I wouldn't be motivated to help others make smart money decisions. And let's be clear, I'm not advocating that others repeat the mistakes I've made. Failure is okay. Every day I write this blog, I'm afraid I'll fail. At my personal site, I recently said I've experienced 1,000 days of doubt at Get Rich Slowly. Whenever I do my weekly podcast, I'm afraid I'll fail.

[00:08:19] And as I've written my book over the past nine weeks, I've been afraid of failure every single day. But I do these things anyhow. I know that if I don't try the things I'm scared of, if I don't risk failure, I'll never succeed. I wrote about my fear of failure back in June of 2007. I described how I'd spent much of my adult life shackled by fear. But by saying yes to the things I'm afraid of, my life has become amazing.

[00:08:48] If you've made poor financial choices, don't let them get you down. Don't let them make you afraid to try again. Draw from your experience. Fall down seven times, get up eight. You just listened to the post titled, Failure is okay, by J.D. Roth of getrichslowly.org. And I'll be right back with my commentary. I've tracked my income and expenses since 2010,

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[00:11:16] That's S-Q-U-A-R-E dot com slash G-O slash OFD. Run your business smarter with Square. Get started today. Thank you to JD. I love that he opened with the ice skating story because it's such a clear picture of what learning anything new really looks like. Eight minutes clinging to the wall, then five, then four. We don't see that part when we look at people who are good with money.

[00:11:44] We just see them as professional skaters, and we assume they were always like that. But almost everyone who's good with money got there by falling down a lot first. I've made plenty of money mistakes myself over the years, and I still make them. But he makes a great point about realistic expectations. So many of us start something big, like paying off debt or finally investing, and we expect to see results right away. And when we don't,

[00:12:13] we take it as proof that we've failed and we quit. But that isn't failure. It's just a practice he's talking about. And the real skill is getting back up, something many people don't do. You don't have to be an expert. You just have to not quit after the fall. So if you've made some money choices you're not proud of, try not to let them define you. Learn what you can and keep going. But that should do it for today.

[00:12:43] Have a great rest of your week. Keep getting back up, and I'll see you tomorrow where your optimal life awaits.