Success by failure

Building PS Audio from a simple meeting in my living room to a successful company has been a 45 year-long journey filled with wonderful people. As I look back, one thing becomes clear to me. Our successes are directly tied to our failures. This odd once inexplicable pattern grows clearer with every passing year as long-term trends often do. In my own development, I have seen that for every admission of personal inability both me and the company grow once I release my grip and deal with my insecurities. A good example is after years of arrogantly thinking I was good at business, the business began to thrive only after I figured out how wrong I was. The writer Simone De Beauvoir said, "It's only arrogance if you're wrong." I was wrong a lot. It's ok to be wrong. In fact, one of the best ways to be right is to be alright with being wrong. It's likely you're really good at a handful of gems. If you can uncover the gems by clearing the clutter of youthful hubris, life and success get pretty sweet. It's not an easy path to follow. Facing our insecurities comes at a high price called fear. What if there are no hidden gems? we angst. But, inevitably, there are in all of us. It requires a leap of faith to see them and leaps into darkness are frightening. Our greatest successes come from owning up to our biggest failures.