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Student: So, I’ve got a question.
Wayne: Yeah.
Student: How did you deal with failure when you have failed at some things?
Cem: Every day there’s a problem I have if someone doesn’t turn up to work. Today, one of our grills stopped working, and the next day people are like, they’re too cold in the shop, they’re too hot in the shop, but like, it’s a constant flow of problems and they say that when you get into business you become like a fire fighter. You’re just like every time there’s a problem, you’ve just got to solve it. Every day, can you keep that thing afloat for another day? That is literally business, but back in the days, you’d get stressed about that.
Cem: Now, you do it so many times that you develop a fixed gear and it’s just like, okay, this is what we do when that problem occurs, or if that problem keeps occurring, what can we do to make sure that problem doesn’t happen again and again? That’s become sort of a natural thing and also I get a buzz out of being like, you know what? I’ve fixed a grill today. There’s no more air coming through that vent, and dah, dah, dah.
Cem: Everything I now do, I actually somehow get pleasure from being like, yeah, I’m putting out the fires and I know that business is being able to open today. We’ve hired the right person and we’ve fired the wrong person. So, it just becomes a bit of the fun. The actual failures are expected, but you just get better at managing them and getting over them and not really being like, it’s a failure. It’s just like, well, this is called business and life and nothing’s straight forward, otherwise it wouldn’t be as fun basically.
Wayne: I find I could talk in my line of work, I could talk ad infinitum about failure. Being an actor, you go to audition. After audition, never hear anything back unless you’ve got the job. You have to write to where you’re looking for an agent. You have to send out 50 to 100 emails before you even get a response saying thanks but no thanks. Because they don’t take the time to email you to say no. Actually that’s often a highlight of your day when you get an email from an agent going, no thanks. You go, yes! Somebody sent an email.
Cem: You’re like, those emails did send.
Wayne: Yeah. It’s horrible but you develop a thick skin. I think what I’ve learned to do is really actually appreciate the game that I’m playing. What business I’ve chosen to go into and actually learn the rules of that game so that I can play that game better than anyone else. That’s kind of how I deal with it. It kind of becomes the fun, is actually kind of going, actually, how can I out do my competition, because I know what I’m setting myself up for.
Wayne: I’ll go into an audition now, I’ll leave the room and I’ll be like, I haven’t got that. I’ll go in, and I’ll never speak of it again, unless somebody asks me how did that audition go. Oh, it went alright. I think in internal, your loss is always great to have. Obviously that’s not an attitude that you should go around walking around like you own the place being like, oh, you don’t want me, it’s your loss. But I think there’s an element of that that I think can be very empowering.
Wayne: I think sometimes when you walk into a pitch for your business, or if it’s me walking into an audition knowing that I can deliver what they want. They might not want the version of it that I’m offering, but they’re looking for something. And I go, well look, this is my solution. Take it or leave it. If they go, yeah, I don’t really fancy, you go, okay. Sometimes they come back.
Cem: I always say that Jim Carey guy always comes in mind when I think about failures. You might as well fail at something that you decide to fail at, rather than just taking something that you don’t even want, so then you’re constantly in a failure. Where as a business person or an entrepreneur or something like that, you get the fun of getting to fail because you chose to fail at something. It’s just again, you just accept it. It’s part of the process really.
Wayne: I love that.
Cem: There’s one thing I’ve heard on a podcast, and we expect that in our podcast which is called the Failure Olympics. It’s something that you can do really quickly just to kind of get yourself used to it. It’s like, you go to a coffee shop, and when you order your coffee you say, can I get a discount? Can I get 10% off please? And they’re like, why? And you’re like, just because I want 10% off. And they’re gonna be like, no. And they’re you’ll be like, okay. And you carry on.
Cem: You did this in loads of shops where you know you’re not gonna get. They’re probably gonna say no, but sometimes, I did it once and they said yes to me. I literally took a picture and put it in my Instagram. I was like, I actually got a discount.
Wayne: I remember.
Cem: You get used to it being really awkward, but then you do something. Most times you’re gonna get rejections constantly, constantly, constantly. But it kind of programs you like the sales going door to door, that eventually it doesn’t affect you anymore, then so you don’t really mind anymore. Where as I think most people, that’s the one thing that holds them back, is they’re so afraid of what the other person thinks. They think like, that person doesn’t give a crap. They’re going home, they’re working in Costa or whatever. They’ve got their money at the end of the day. You’ve just come in and asked a random question like, can I get a discount.
Cem: It’s like, why? They just go, no or let me ask. Sometimes they go, can I get the manager? I’ll get the manager. Manager comes over is like, why do you want a discount? I go, it’s just one discount. They’re like, no. And you’re like, okay. You get used to the feeling of failure and it’s kind of a system of called Failure Olympics. How many times can you get rejected just in random situation? You start playing outside the normal selective rules of life. I think that’s what you have to get used to. In businesses, everything you doing is not normal. You’re not going in to a 9 to 5. This things kind of program your brain to get used to doing these things that are not normal, but you need to do those things in business anyway to succeed.
If you want any questions answered, or if you have any ideas for anythings you’d like us to address, send us an email, Wayne@powerfulnonsense.com or Cem@powerfulnonsense.com, or you can look us up on the Twitterz @PN_Podcast, and we will take it into consideration. And also, please do leave us a nice little review on the old iTunes. It really does help get the word out there for the show. Five stars or more, greatly appreciated.