Strangely enough, I’ve never really been afraid of failure per se. I’ve always been one to take risks and put my neck out on the line for the sake of trying. Failure itself doesn’t scare me; losing something does. That fear of losing something, whether it’s someone dear to me or my momentum in a project or even my motivation, propels me to just keep going. I can’t risk stopping and trying to analyze every single second, because if I do that (as I am prone to do), then I will lose my focus and quit. It’s happened plenty of times before, but I don’t let myself any more.

Example: you know about my history with depression. Well, I could sit down and analyze how I feel and why and all the tiniest details about depression and suicide and the gamut of emotional turmoil that is my mind… or I could just keep working at my life. If I stop and think about it and how easy it is to just stop, I won’t get anywhere. Same thing goes for everything I do. I can’t do the things I’m actively involved in if I start re-analyzing everything.

Sometimes the best thing you can do is just take a deep breath and keep chugging along. If you worry too hard, I guarantee you, nothing will get done and then you really will bottom out.

When I played competitive tennis, I was the one on the bus fired up to play the semi-pro teams. Yes, the odds were that we would lose, but I was the only player on my team to ever win. That was after three blood blisters on my feet and a torn tendon in my knee. Losing is the risk you run in competing.

When I ran my first marathon, I had never run that far before, but it never crossed my mind that I might be one of the athletes taken from the course on a golf cart or an ambulance. Not finishing is the risk you run in starting.

When I first came to you with the idea of PR(evolution), the purpose was to meet a need. Students in our department didn’t know how to use social media in public relations, and we decided that it was important that they learn. Success, in this case, has nothing to do with how many professionals we impress or professors we wow. Success will mean that we met the need. Failure will mean that we did not. Not giving everything is the risk you run in trying to give something.

You run a risk with every action you take. Failure is a factor in every situation. However, failure should never be a factor in your attitude. The only danger is that we don’t give all of our best to this project!

Fear doesn’t exist. We invent it.

You cannot hope to succeed if you are not willing to take some risks and fail sometimes. People who don’t are boring.

Of course, since failure is part of the equation, we develop contingency plans. That is what they are for. Besides, my Rule No. 9 for advertising suggests …

Rule 9: There is always a better way. There are a few great ads, some good ads, and a boatload of bad ads being produced every day. But even the best ads can always be made better.

What does that mean? There really isn’t a fail. It’s all just an opportunity to do things a little better. The sooner you get that, pushing aside all those years of receiving grades, the better off you will be in the profession.

Look forward to see what’s cooking.

Best,
Rich

I don’t think. I just keep going. I attempt to block it all away and just plug myself into it, because I’m terrified that if I let it go to my head, I’ll bottom out.

More later, I promise.