What Learning to Snowboard Taught Me About Failing🏂🏂

Every year I head up to Steamboat Springs with a group of close friends to snowboard.

In addition to our core group, there are around 20 other people who go up.

Inevitably, there are a few “newbies” who get out on the slopes.

As someone who grew up in Indiana, I didn’t learn to snowboard until just a couple years ago. I wasn’t one of those kids that was on skis when I was a two year old.

As such, I’ve taken my fair share of HARD crashes. Yet I still love being on a snowboard.

At the end of Saturday, we all get together for dinner. Having not seen a lot of the new skiers all day, I check in to see how they are doing.

Normally, the opening remark is something like “I only crashed three times!” or “I stayed on my feet most of the day!”

Excuse me?

We defined success on skis as “not falling”?

Yep.

In fact, we define nearly everything in life by “not falling”.

We live in a world that teaches us that failure is bad. One bad grade on a test can kill your chances of going to your dream school.

But the truth is, failure is the only way to learn.

At this point, I’m a pretty good snowboarding. But I’m nearly 100% sure I fell more than the beginners did that day.

I spent tons of time climbing out of snowdrifts.

Why? Because I run at the edge of what I’m able to do.

I’m going fast, through trees, through powder, and through anything else the mountain can throw my way.

The reason I can do that is because I’ve fallen thousands of times.

When I first started learning to snowboard, I went with people who were WAY better than I was.

And I had to keep up or get left behind.

So I learned to keep up. It wasn’t easy, but it got me to where I needed to go.

Falling is what taught me to stay up.

Failing in business is what taught me to succeed.

Failure is your friend. Embrace it.

Whether you’re skiing down a mountain or launching a startup, if you’re new, you’re going to have some failures.

So get up, shake the snow off your jacket and keep going.

I’ll see you in the backcountry.

Your Favorite Marketer,

Tyler @ Analytive

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