The only people that don’t make mistakes…

Are the ones that don’t do anything.

I had a meeting with a friend of mine from Jakarta last week in Seminyak Bali. We were catching up, it had been about a year and a half since we met. We talked about business, personal things, and general conversation about life. We talked about how failures and all are the sum of our parts. 

The only people that don’t make mistakes are the ones that don’t do anything. 

When we talked about business, many failures in business came up. This is when I remembered the above quote. This quote came up again once more. 

Take chances.

When I saw the post from a young man I knew on Instagram I reached out to him and sent a few words of encouragement. I also shared a small story with him from high school. 

When I was in high school, I was a pretty good athlete and I was convinced by Jim Taylor who was one of the top triple jumpers in Canada to do the triple jump. 

Jim was an easygoing guy and also became a good friend. Yet for some reason, Jim was too busy to give me actual training. I kept asking him to train me. He kept delaying the training until I was getting very anxious because it was a week out and I still had no training in the triple jump.

I believe in you.

It was 2-3 days before the track and field meet and Jim finally gave me some training and said I would be ready for the meet. I was not so sure, but I was to do my best, that is all I could do. 

On the day of the meeting, I showed up and did my best. I came in third place. This third-place finish was my first crack at the triple jump. The result was not bad considering I had 3 days of training. 

However, the training is not the point here. The point is, I asked Jim years later why he didn’t train and work with me more. This is what was life-changing for me. Jim simply said I believed in you and I knew you could do it. 

Keep in mind, that I was anxious before soccer games, track meets, and probably other aspects of my life. Yet here I was… Someone who was just sort of there in my life as a young man gave me thoughts of positivity and encouragement. 

So did I.

When saw this young man’s post I gave him a few words of encouragement. He replied and thanked me. He said it made him think and made him grateful for the few words I sent him. Did I change his life with a few words? I don’t know, maybe, maybe not. The point is, if it did make him think and I did make a difference, then my minute of time lost was not a loss. 

Sometimes a few words of encouragement are all we need. We need people to believe in us. Simple as that…