5 Reasons We Fail

This mornings Keynote at the Sales 2.0 Conference was by Jeff Hayzlett. Jeff is a dynamic, ball of energy on stage. He’s a killer presenter. He had me laughing through the entire thing.

In his presentation Jeff talked about why we fail.  I thought it was powerful because failure is what we  all spend everyday trying  to avoid.  Knowing why we fail allows us to avoid the barriers and then we can hit change head on.

Why do we fail?

  1. Fear – we are afraid.
  2. Tension – we don’t like tension.
  3. Radical Transparency – we don’t like to confront reality. We don’t like to call out the elephant in the room.
  4. Risk – we’re afraid of what “could” happen.
  5. Promises – we don’t make enough promises. We dont’ commit to doing what we say we’re going to do.

No one likes to fail. If you think about it, failing is a LOT easier than succeeding.  Succeeding at change means we have to accept tension, we have to embrace things we don’t like and that makes uncomfortable. We have to risk losing what we have. We have to make promises and commit. All of these things make us nervous. They pull us out of our comfort zone.  No one likes being uncomfortable.  But, to embrace change you have to be comfortable being uncomfortable.

  1. Embrace fear, be a beginner.
  2. Debate, it’s healthy
  3. Keep your eyes open, accept reality, embrace the tension and call out the elephant in the room
  4. Take risk, no on is going to die
  5. Make promises and keep them

What are you going to succeed at today?

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Keenan