Apart from basic animalistic instincts, we are born with almost no fear. As a child my imagination ran wild and I drove my parents crazy, I had no fear, I believed I could swim without breathing underwater. I believed I could run as fast as the cars racing the down the street on our road, even if that mean I fell each time tearing up shorts and coming back home with a bleeding knee and I believed I could FLY even though that meant I broke my head several times jumping off the sofa and table. I simply had no or very little fear.

But soon this stage was replaced with THE INFLUENCE OF FEAR by everyone around me and the society at large. BE CAREFULyou can’t do that, WATCHOUT that’s too dangerous and it is NOT SAFE to go there.

While our parents are concerned for our safety and create these rules and boundaries, inadvertently they also create the basis for our fear of failure. As we grow up all the above translate into: No it won’t work, No That’s impossible, You will fail.

This influence at some point grows so strong that it turns into the third stage of FEAR. The fear that stops us in our track.

Between 1985 and 89, when I was still in school, I spent my life writing computer games, slot machines, Black Jack, and even a PacMan imitation.

I remember I once told my computer teacher that it would be great if we could link up all these computers and create games that we could play as a team. I told him about games like skating, golf, and skiing. He put his hand on his chin had a think and said “UmmmMmm. I don’t think it would sell. People would rather play golf, skate, and ski in real life. Computer games are things that you can’t do in physical life, like Tetris.!” And just like that, he crushed a passion I had

From school throughout to the end of university, In those years all I had heard from lecturers to savvy businessmen was NO you can’t do that, No it won’t work, No That’s impossible.

The good news is that regardless of the above when you are young you are mostly able to ignore these naysayers and negative influences. Your brain requires real proof to build a circuit for what works and what does not work. It is almost like the need to feel and understand that your finger will burn if you dip it into hot water.

You get started with your project(s) and sometimes it is an instant success and other times you will fail numerous times before you succeed. However, it is important to understand how to deal with these failures in order to be able to continue our journey towards our goal.

In the next few blog posts, I will talk about these underlying feelings and how you can use THE POWER of failure to your advantage. I will divide them into 7 posts covering:

Frustration, hopelessness, futility
Aggressiveness (misdirected energy)
Insecurity
Loneliness (Lack of Oneness)
Uncertainty
Resentment
Emptiness