All of us want success. So why does investor, author, and entrepreneur James Altucher talk so openly about being mediocre?
In an opinion piece at TechCrunch, he writes:
I’ve started a bunch of companies. Sold some. Failed at most. I’ve invested in a bunch of startups. Sold some. Failed at some, and the jury is still sequestered on a few others. I can tell you overall, though, everything I have done has been distinguished by its mediocrity, its lack of a grand vision, and any success I’ve had can be just as much put in the luck basket as the effort basket.
Altucher has more to say on the topic of failure:
By definition, most of us are pretty mediocre. We can strive for greatness but we will never hit it. So it means we will often fail. Not ALWAYS fail. But often.
…
My last 16 out of 17 business attempts were failures. I made so many mistakes in my first successful business I’m almost embarassed to recount them.
…The mediocre entrepreneur understands that persistence is not the self-help cliche “Keep going until you hit the finish line!”. The key slogan is, “Keep failing until you accidentally no longer fail.” That’s persistence.
What is the secret to success? According to this investor, it’s paying attention to where you don’t succeed. It’s finding time to do nothing, and recognizing that procrastination might be your mind telling you that you should be doing something else. The secret to success is failure.