Neal Whitten's No-Nonsense Advice for Successful Projects

CHAPTER 12

Don’t Fear Failure

“If you have made mistakes, even serious ones, there is always another chance for you. What we call failure is not the falling down but the staying down.”

—Mary Pickford, Canadian-born American movie actress and producer

The fear of failure—or inversely, the fear of success—prevents many of us from realizing our dreams. When we are bitten by the failure bug, we recoil—we want to go into hiding. We withdraw from taking big steps with our dreams and endeavors; we become content with baby steps or no steps. We become overly cautious and seek the safe ground. We become anxious. We churn inside and nervously look over our shoulders in fear that failure is close by. We cower at change; we become immobilized and can essentially ...