13 Words That Changed How I See Failure

From failed businesses to thriving artist

“Failure is the information you need to get to where you are going.” - Rick Rubin

These 13 words hold the key to unlocking your greatest dreams.

Too many people let their creative pursuits die because they’re afraid of failure. But what if failure wasn’t something to fear? What if it was the map guiding you toward your destination?

When I first read this quote in Rick Rubin’s book, The Creative Act, I stopped. I literally put the book down and replayed the last 15 years of my life like it was a movie.

Every setback, disappointment, and heartbreak… suddenly these weren’t just failures. They were puzzle pieces.

• The two businesses I poured years into… only to close

• Spending weeks developing a talk for SpeakerSlam, and earning 10th place… out of 12 participants

• The first online course I gave my heart to, investing 5 figures into launching… which flopped

• Writing and sharing dozens of vulnerable posts, with my heart on my sleeve... that received virtually zero response

• Proposing to my at-the-time partner of 3 years… only for everything to fall apart 12 months later

Each one of these failures brought me closer to where I am today, and helped me understand myself a little more.

Here's the twist: my success isn't in spite of all these failures—it's because of them.

And yet, after 15 years of sharing content online, failure still scares me. Resistance and fear still show up every single time. They’ve grown with me, levelling up as I do. They find new tricks, new ways to whisper, “Quit.”

But here’s the thing…

Resistance hates this Rick Rubin quote. Fear only thrives when failure feels like the enemy; but when you reframe failure as essential, fear loses its grip.

The faster and more often you fail, the faster you get to where you really want to be.

Even Sara Blakely, the founder of Spanx, credits this mindset for her billion-dollar success. Her dad encouraged her and her brother to fail every single day. She shares this in a short, 40-second video I embedded below. It’s worth your time.

I love this so much that I’ve started asking Ariel, our 14-year-old, the same question at home. “How did you fail today?” Then we talk about it and laugh about it and in doing so we take the fear away and make it a big game.

Change your relationship with failure, and you just might change your life.

Big love,

D

Darius Bashar
HEARTshots™ Photographer + Founder
Artist, Creator, Meditator | ArtistMorning.com™

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Sara Blakely: “My Dad Demanded Failure”