Each Monday, the Martin Sunday Lighting Design team has a team meeting, though we begin these meetings a little bit different than the average company team meeting. We start with a group Meditation session lead by one of our team leaders, we “Check In” with each other, then we’re led in a Personal Development Teaching Piece where a designated team member teaches the team something new that they’ve benefitted from either in their personal or professional life. You can learn more about this by reading What Sets Our Team Apart.
This week, it was Stathis’ turn to lead the Personal Development Teaching Piece and he chose a podcast episode from Entrepreneurs on Fire by John Lee Dumas (AKA JLD) where he interviewed Brian Scudamore in an episode titled “How to Use Failure As Your Key to Success“. Feel free to take a moment to listen to the podcast episode before diving into our discussion below.
Team Discussion
Stathis listened to this podcast episode on his own time and took notes while doing so. In the episode, the speakers discuss an exercise that requires you to write down your answers to the following questions:
- Ask yourself, if you could go anywhere, where would you go?
- Describe this place: what does it look like? What kind of weather is here? What are the people like?
- What are you doing/what’s happening?
- Be as specific as possible when writing these answers out.
- Next, ask yourself, what could the future look like? Describe it in as much detail as possible.
- Now, add a timeline to this future. When do you imagine that this could become reality?
- DO NOT write down any issues that may arise or get in your way. Use your heart when writing down your answers to these questions.
- If you’re feeling extra brave, send Brian Scudamore a DM on Instagram letting him know that you participated in his exercise and how you feel after doing so.
Stathis goes on to say, “A lot of times, I start thinking about my dreams and write out my goals, then doubt, fear, ‘why this could never happen’ starts to creep in. So if you choose to do this exercise, think of it like you’re playing. Enjoy yourself and kill that part of your brain that starts to say ‘that’s ridiculous’! Just go with it and write it all down.
“At home, I’ve got a vision board that I made 5-6 years ago with major commitments that I’ve made to myself written all over it. It’s funny, I hadn’t seen this one piece of paper in awhile as I had turned it over and pinned it backwards, hiding what was written on it. So one day recently, I was looking at my board and I turned that piece of paper back over and realized that I am now 3 quarters of the way to completing this long-term goal of mine, which seemed very challenging from the get-go.“
On the podcast, Brian discussed how he explained to the team of people working for him that they have to take risks. That together, they have to set the vision and separate it from all the reasons why it can’t happen. Instead, they need to take the risks, input the effort, do the work and the results will follow.
We deeply encourage you to listen to “How to Use Failure As Your Key to Success” on the Entrepreneurs on Fire podcast to get the full experience and feel the passion from Brian as he recounts his many journeys to success.
Each Team Member’s Personal Thoughts On This Teaching Piece
We’ll end our discussion today by taking a moment to share each team member’s personal thoughts on this teaching piece; what it meant to them, what they took away from it or how they plan to utilize the information moving forward. You can learn more about each team member by visiting our Meet the Team page.
Bailey Reber
This teaching reminded me that failure is important in order to become successful. “The passion comes from commitment” quote stands out to me as that’s exactly how I learned to love exercise. Back when I was working towards my weight loss goal, I committed myself to 3-4 Camp Gladiator workouts each week even though I did not enjoy going. As I kept up with my commitment, I began to no longer see these workouts as a burden, but instead as something that I enjoyed and looked forward to each day!
Katelyn Moore
Failure means something different to everyone, but a lot of us have a fear of failure. I agree that it is key to success and that it is good to learn a lesson from your failures – it helps you grow and gain the success you are working towards.
Martin Sunday
To succeed means you must keep falling down and getting back up, over and over again. You must embrace change and take risks. One of my favorite quotes is, “shoot for the moon – even if you miss, you still end up in the stars“. What really stood out to me from this podcast episode was the quote, “make meaning not money“.
Stathis Kafoglis
My biggest takeaways are: 1. Life is a series of choices and consequences, 2. “Can you imagine” creates vision and 3. Sometimes you just have to put the work in.
Tiarra Whitaker
I think this is a great message. Being afraid to fail can stop you from accomplishing many great ideas and passion that could lead you to success that you didn’t even know you were capable of. Oftentimes, fear of failure prevents us from taking the first step and making the first move. There is nothing wrong with being afraid, as long as you you don’t use that as a means for preventing you from going after what you want.
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Hungry for more? Be sure to check out these previous Personal Development Team Teaching to indulge in more personal growth teachings.
