LETTER FROM THE CEO
“ You can ’ t fail in America .”
How do you define failure ?
Years ago , I agreed to talk to a room of students earning their MBA at Vanderbilt University . The speaker before me made his entire presentation about preparing to fail , given that most businesses do . It was a terrible speech to give to a room full of young , hopeful teens attempting to start a business , because he set the expectation of losing , encouraging them to embrace it . Dumb . And I said as much after he left the stage ( which may be why I was never asked back ).
For starters , you should never start ANY venture with the expectation to fail . You should always expect to win and achieve your outcome . Instead of expecting to fail , you need to anticipate obstacles , difficulty , unexpected problems and setbacks . You should anticipate the need to change your approach . You should anticipate that some of your plans and efforts will fall short . You should anticipate weariness , aggravation and frustration . NOT failure .
A missed goal , a shortcoming , a setback is not failure . It ’ s simply a speed bump on the road to winning ... unless you give up repeatedly or entirely . Embracing failure IS failing .
I often say that marketers never have failures — we only have tests . That ’ s not a play on words or a cute anecdote . We always try to create a home-run campaign on the first attempt but know from experience that the path to finding a winning campaign requires colliding the campaign with the marketplace and seeing how ( if ) they respond , learning from it , then adjusting the approach , sending it out again , learning , refining and going again UNTIL it works and wins . Most people are not up for this level of commitment to a goal , and THAT is what failure is .
We just wrapped up the election with Trump winning by a landslide . Love him or hate him , you can ’ t deny the guy ’ s one of the toughest , most persistent and intensely determined human beings walking this planet . I believe that iron will is at the core of why he was elected a second time — he just wouldn ’ t give up . You cannot pull off what he pulled off if you have any expectation to fail .
When I interviewed Gene Simmons onstage , he made the comment that you “ can ’ t fail in America .” To his point , if you cannot afford food and shelter , the government will provide it to you . If you need an education , it ’ s provided for free . If you want a job , you can get one . If you start a business and truly fail out , you can declare bankruptcy and try again . Not all countries provide
TMT CEO Robin Robins in a power-packed conversation with the legendary KISS frontman , Gene Simmons , at TMT ' s top-tier membership event .
this to their citizens . Many might argue that “ simply ” earning a living is NOT a success ... but it ’ s certainly not total failure either .
The reason he believes this is because he is a living , breathing example of the American dream . He and his mother immigrated to the US when he was six years old . His mother survived the Nazi concentration camps as a teenager , losing her grandmother and mother to the gas chambers . Gene and his mother were desperately poor . His father abandoned his family shortly after Gene was born , and his mother was forced to raise him on her own .
He came to America with no money , no education , unable to speak English and entirely dependent on family members and became one of the wealthiest citizens in our country . Many see him as a controversial , “ creepy ” and unethical “ rockstar .” I see him as a brilliant self-made entrepreneur who simply outworked everyone and refused to fail .
This is what I ’ ve learned over the years of starting and growing a business , pulling myself out of poverty and bad situations over and over again : Whatever you believe you are capable of , you ’ re right . Whatever you accept , even a little of , you get more of — and you damned well deserve it .
Sincerely ,
Robin Robins Founder And CEO , MSP Success
Robin Robins is the CEO and Founder of TMT . TMT is the parent company of MSP Success .