2016 in Review: Failure

At the end of the year, I take the time to reflect. This post, and the others like it, are my lessons for 2016. My hope is by reading them; you get a sense of what my overall lessons were. My hope is by writing them; I’ll have a place to archive my memories. In the future, they are quickly sorted and filed when someone looks for insight.

• 2016 in Review: Failure
• 2016 in Review: Successes
• 2016 in Review: Eleven Book Recommendations
• 2016 in Review: The Major Lesson
• Blog Direction for 2017 – New Year Themes!

Failure sucks.

Even so, it is a bridge to our future. There are lessons with our failure that inform our growth if we decide to listen to them.

To listen, here are my top 10 failures for 2016.

• My love for comedy – Last year I wrote about doing more comedy in 2016. This year, not only did I not do more comedy, I did much less.It wasn’t a matter of time, it was want. At the heart of it, I lost my love for it. As a result, my pulse on funny has faded, and I lost a step in public presentation.
  • Change for 2017: I am not sure. I’ve thought about comedy a lot. Was, is escapism or do I love it? Perhaps it is both. Before I go any further, I have to answer this question.
• My Health – In 2015 I wrote about losing weight at the end of the year. As the new year started, I got even better. Then, I just stopped. I ended up gaining the weight back. When I had the time to invest in my health, I decided to do other things. I regret this. I prioritized anything and everything else, and I paid the price. Physical health influences my mental and spiritual energy.
  • Change for 2017:  The next year of my life is dedicated to my health in many ways. I’ll change my diet and spend more time in the gym. The good thing about this year is I got to pay attention to how I failed and pivoted from there.
• Using Social Media as a Tool – Like my health and comedy, at the start of the year I had some great experiments going on, like investing in Facebook ads. I stopped. My focus went elsewhere and I missed an opportunity to learn more. I think this is going to be important, and I failed. At some point, I just turned on automation and stopped thinking about it entirely.
  • Change for 2017: I know the importance of this, and might consider outsourcing here. Social media, in particular for this blog, extends its reach.
• Guest posting / distributing content – I completely whiffed on this. I missed the chance to share some of the posts here through creating fantastic content. Some of this is because I have been scared of distribution. Hearing no makes me defensive. As a result, I miss opportunities.
  • Change for 2017: I came up with a way to change this. I am going to experiment with combining my newsletters and creating guest posts for folks. Once I perfect, I’ll “keep firing,” which is a philosophy I am going to double down on in 2017.
• Barbershop Books – This didn’t end the way I wanted. I resigned in October because I didn’t feel the engagement of the folks around. I had to make a choice, and I decided to leave.
  • Change for 2017: I’ll support this organization when and where I can. My lesson, though, is in fostering engagement. I learned a lot on this journey and will make that a priority for any leadership position.
• Delivery of Material – An old mentor told me once “you deliver filet mignon, it’s just you have the tendency to put it on a garbage lid.” I find that in my work on this blog sometimes, and in a world where your attention splinters easily, I can’t afford to lose people because of the presentation. This played into my lack of distribution.
  • Change for 2017: I am working on my presentation for all projects in 2017 as a priority.
• Money as flexibility – I could spend money in a better way. I could save money in a better way. With wasteful spending, I cut down on my flexibility. Freedom is in flexibility.
  • Change for 2017: Create automated systems where I make sure that I can’t waste money.
• Arcade School – I created a startup feasibility project in 2016. It was called Arcade School. After four months of work, we realized it wasn’t possible, and the barrier to entry was too high.I put myself in a box.I didn’t put a test early enough and backed myself into a corner.
  • Change for 2017: Having a test to market out faster on all future projects.
• Distraction – I spent a lot of this year seeking. I also spent a lot of time distracted. Time is one of our only true resources. I rationalized a lot of my distracted time, pretending I was seeking. Distraction is hard to avoid.
  • Change for 2017:  I’ll make space dedicated “seeking” and work to reduce distraction with tools like Pavlok.
• Online Classes –  I didn’t finish any of the ones I started (outside of altMBA / Harvard Business School CoreX). In a way, it started me down the path to Arcade School, however, I still lost a lot of time. Too many classes and not enough engagement.
  • Change for 2017: Taking the lessons from Arcade School about engagement (adding a partner, raising stakes, being public) to increase my hit rate.