Try everything and don’t be afraid to fail. That’s sort of been the mission statement of my life. No matter what amount of suck and inconvenience has been thrown my way, and no matter how many times I’ve had to alter the plan. When you’re building something that you want to succeed whether it’s a business, a band, or a book club, you have to keep evaluating, improving and most importantly moving with failure (and it’s avoidance) foremost in your mind.

Some people will tell you that failure is a state of mind, and you can’t even consider it. I think that’s crap. Imagine you’re running towards a cliff, but you’re in a state of great joy and optimism, wouldn’t you rather maintain your joy and optimism and avoid going over the cliff’s edge to your death? Hell, maybe some wouldn’t, but I would and you probably would, too. So I think that you have to be mindful of failure, and through evaluation and improvement you move away from failure. But to say failure is just a state of mind, and dismiss it, much like a lot of folks only want to hear the bright side of things, is just foolish… and yes ignorance is bliss, but when you’re out there trying to make a go of something you don’t have the luxury of ignorance because you’ve made a decision that you’re going for it, because the status quo just isn’t working for you. To that I say right on!