“That which does not kill us makes us stronger” – Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)
Reminded by our friends at Google that today, October 15, is the 169th anniversary of the birth in 1844 of the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.
Nietzsche was, and remains, a controversial figure perhaps best known for his declaration that “God is dead” and his utter rejection of religion. But the quote that I always associate with him is the one at the top of the post…
“That which does not kill us makes us stronger”
Coincidentally (or not?) the October 2013 issue of the GKIC “No B.S. Marketing Letter” arrived in the mail today. On the back page in his “Renegade Millionaire System” column, Dan Kennedy talks about how even highly successful people and companies (for example, Richard Branson, Donald Trump and Disney) have experienced some pretty big failures.
“Examine almost any shiny success, and on its flip side, you’ll find grimy failure. How do you feel about that fact?”
It’s very rare to go through life without having to deal with some sort of “failure”. Arguably, if you do you’re not trying hard enough! I seem to recall reading a few years back that in general self-made millionaires “failed” on average…
…16 times before they finally achieved lasting success.
And I was reminded of this at the recent EADIM 2013 event (“Drayton Bird’s EADIM 2103 Direct Marketing Conference”) when Drayton talked about the various ups and downs in his own career. Struggles in the early years, followed by enormous success…followed by years in the wilderness before finding success again.
So what lessons can direct response marketers and copywriters, indeed anyone in business, draw from all this? I can do no better than to quote these 2 points from Dan Kennedy.
Success Point #1
“If your success game plan features being right 100% of the time and never making mistakes or your fragile ego demands never getting egg on your face, you’ll be playing the game for only a short time, timidly and without distinction, or you’ll rise high and fast only to fall just as fast and crash as hard as can be.”
So, you need to “go for it” and take calculated risks.
But, keep in mind…
Success Point #2
“…failure is the other parent of almost all success. The goal of success can never be to avoid failure, but to manage it, minimize its harm, extract its lessons, leverage it in every way possible, rise above it and know that it will be forgotten and irrelevant in time.”
In other words, have both the mental strength and the resources to stay in the game. Make sure that setbacks don’t “kill” you or your business and you will get stronger.
By the way, the latest issue of the “No B.S. Marketing Letter” is outstanding. There are a couple of articles from Dave Dee (one on “Cold Reading” and the other on client surveys) that for me repay the investment for the whole year. And that’s without the articles from Dan (and others), the “Swipe and Deploy” feature and this month’s interview with Jake Steinfeld.
If you don’t already subscribe, you’re missing out on one of the best resources available for direct response marketers. You can give it a test drive for free with the famous “Most Incredible Free Gift Ever”. Details at GKICLondon.