Dan Cohen, Executive Director of the Wake Forest Entrepreneurship Program wrote the following article on the Entrepreneur Mindset. As an alum of Wake Forest, maybe I'm biased, but this definitely resonates with me and I would say mirrors my experience at Wake Forest. Always put forth your best and accept it may not always win. I would add that failures should not be looked upon as losses, but opportunities to improve or pivot.
We often hear the notion in entrepreneurial endeavors, "fail fast". While if something is not going to work that makes a lot of sense. But it does not "give up quickly".
Being in North Carolina, we have a fondness of basketball, and its hard to talk about basketball without mentioning Michael Jordan. There are some pivotal moments in his journey to become arguably the greatest NBA player of all time. In his sophomore year, Michael Jordan did make his high school varsity team and felt he should have. But he turned this disappointment into his motivation. “Whenever I was working out and got tired and figured I ought to stop, I'd close my eyes and see that list in the locker room without my name on it. That usually got me going again.” Jordan confirmed via Newsweek. When Jordan entered the NBA he was criticized as being not very good at defense. This too became his motivation and he was awarded MVP and best defensive player of the year in 1988.
Read Dan Cohen's "Tolerance for Risk" HERE.