I came across a video on YouTube last week by Conor Neill with the title “Redefining failure-living safely is dangerous”.
Conor Neill’s YouTube channel is one I am subscribed to and he always publishes thought provoking videos and blog posts. They are well worth checking out.
I was intrigued by this idea that living safely was dangerous. When I watched the video I saw that he was making the point in the context of setting your goals and redefining failure.
You can set easy, safe goals and never fail. Or you can set more ambitious targets and fail regularly. But your wins, your successes, will be spectacular.
And quoting Nietzsche-living safely is dangerous-he went on to refer to baseball and the batting statistics in that sport. An incredibly high failure rate when it comes to batting in baseball will still leave you in the top 30% of the game.
Even those occupying the hall of fame in baseball have a high failure rate when it comes to ‘at bat’ statistics.
This idea is well worth serious consideration. Because we can all live safe lives with tame, achievable goals and avoid failure, or many failures, at all costs.
But we will never achieve very much. Far better to set targets and goals that stretch us and will pay off spectacularly, even if our failure rate increases significantly.