"Martin Scores Easy"

No that's not the name of an adult film director but it should be. Was thinking of a player I used to be on a team with (his name is not Martin but for article sake he's Martin) and I recall a few teammates and competitors grumbling that he used to get easy points.

I challenged that statement and I continue to challenge that statement in any work or life environment. The reason he did well is because he....worked hard at it. He drilled down into what is necessary to be successful.

Before you tune out with the 'heard it before'(true) or 'some people get things handed to them'(true) give me a chance to explain.

There's the 10,000 hour rule (read Malcolm Gladwell), there's the 'never surrender' (Braveheart attitude) and so on and so on. The piece that gets some interest but truly not enough focus is....learning to fail. Yes kiddies....failing is good for you. Not wanting to fail but LEARNING to fail. Tom Petty was learning to fly but you should learn to fail (use Johnny Depp in your video like he did...works like a charm).

Every single time you fail you should be learning and with that learning experience you should take it with you and use it to your advantage when moving forward.

Participating isn't good enough. Participating means you 'were there'. Anyone can show up. Hell, anyone can show up and look like they are accomplishing something but the ones that make it....they fail. They fail often and often they fail LARGE!!!!

Why is it good to fail on a grand scale? Well, simply put....you put your b**ls on the line for something. There are few people willing to do that because let's face it....not easy. Not only is it not easy it's not fun and usually doesn't end up in the results you expect.

So why would we do this? First and foremost it gets you out of your

comfort zone. Which....is fairly cliche but so true. How do you know what you're going to accomplish if you can't push yourself?

Second and more importantly it shows you can face ADVERSITY. Guess what? In life...in business...in every step you take you need to find a way to deal with adversity.

Think about the start of the article. People upset about Martin 'scoring' but what they didn't grasp is that he did not succeed immediately. He did not succeed over and over and over in a way that only he could understand because his focus was on pushing out of comfort zone and dealing with adversity. That pain turned into a routine because he decided to sustain a level of consistency in not being afraid to fail so that Martin could score....easier.