I failed at creating my Impossible Project.

This means that I didn’t do my exotic dragon dance performance within the 90 days. (You can read about my lessons learned and what’s happening next here.)

But that isn’t the only “failure” I’ve experienced lately.

A couple weeks ago I put out a Pay What You Can Offer as a 24 hour experiment. Eleven people could get a 30 minute transformative coaching session with me, and name their own price for it.

Only one person took me up on the offer. (Interestingly, the same person who was the only one to show up for one of my last “failed” invitations!)

These experiences really don’t feel like failures, at least not the way I used to think about them.

I used to make up stories about what other people would say if they knew that I’d created an offer that flopped. I thought it meant I was deficient or inadequate in some way.

Today I make a point of telling you about these “failed” experiments, and I don’t feel a bit bad or ashamed.

Here’s the thing about failure:

Failure doesn’t exist until we make it up as such.

I simply can’t fail at something until I think of it as failure. Until that moment, all that exists is what I did and the results it got. Everything else is just a story.

After this last failure to sell out my little experiment, I asked myself, “What meaning do I make of this?” Reviewing my actions to learn what I can do differently next time seemed like a wise thing to do.

The answer I got was NOTHING.

There’s not enough data to say whether the offer was crap or there were too many options in the email or no one is interested…though all of these are plausible assessments.

So what the hell did I learn from this?

Well, I saw that I had some nervousness about making the invitation because it violated “good marketing” practices. I did it anyway.

I’m noticing that I can feel insecure and still take an action that feels right, and when it doesn’t go the way I hope, it really isn’t a big deal. In fact, I feel happy to have these experiences and share them with you.

There really IS no failure, only feedback. That isn’t just some inspirational quip; it’s the truth.

Check out Elon Musk’s response to his latest botched rocket launch that exploded after only a few minutes. “…an exciting test launch of Starship! Learned alot for the next test launch in a few months.”

Now I have a question for you:

What would you dare if you knew you wouldn’t feel bad about it, no matter how it turned out?

I love what this question opens up for me. If it tickles or itches you in some way, let me know. Maybe we can giggle or groan about it together.

Yours in love and play,

Steph