I get knocked down, but I get up again

Did you see the Facebook post from our friend whose business failed? 

Yeah...neither did I! 🤷‍♂️

That’s because everyone shares their successes… But rarely (if ever) do they share their failures.

The reality is that we all fail. And that’s OK. 

🤦‍♂️ I’ve Failed! (a lot)

Throughout my life and my career I’ve had my fair share of successes. 

I’ve sold over a billion dollars of goods and services, I’ve started multiple successful businesses, I’ve met some of the most influential people in the world, and I’ve been blessed to work with, and for some of the biggest brands on the planet.

(These are the kinds of things that would make my Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn feeds for sure)

But to get there, I’ve failed a lot.

Actually, my failure-to-success ratio is more like 20 to 1 😬

(For you math nerds, that’s a 5% success rate - single digits!)

So on paper… I suck. Pretty bad.

The thing is, I don’t see anything as a failure. I see EVERYTHING as a learning experience.

Even from my very first business venture at the ripe age of 13 I learned valuable lessons.

Like about my fashion choices! (don’t judge the plaid) 😂

In all, I’ve started, co-founded, or invested in over 60 businesses. 

Most of them have been commercial failures.

But they’ve provided me more insights and lessons than any MBA program could ever offer.

Here are just some of those fail.. I mean lessons…

📱I started, not 1, not 2, not 3, but 4 app development companies! The first 3 combined had over a million downloads, but were flops in terms of making money. The 4th time was the charm. 

👨‍💻 I’ve owned hundreds of domain names and developed 30 or so into websites or projects. 

Some of the sites that flopped? 

• TheCoffeeMakerOutlet.com

• GameShowForum.com (I LOVE game shows! I want to be a contestant on one before I die)

• YouTubeMarketingTips.com

• CheapBinoculars.com

• GuitarWallHangers.com

• ToenailFungusRemedies.com

• HealBackPains.com

• 420Hill.com

• DateAnEntrepreneur.com (Dating site)

• JustinBieberYouGotItBad.com (Justin Bieber fan site 🤣 I didn’t want to miss the boy band trend again!)

🍑 I launched a cosmetics line called Mayor & Dunes. It had 4 products: Nice Thighs (anti-cellulite cream), Great Asset (butt plumping cream), Perfect Pair (boob plumping cream), and Fat Rub (cellulite cream). It belly flopped!

🎬 I launched a TV show series called My 52 Adventures where I would take a different adventure every week and document it. It never got picked up. But it was a blast! My favorite adventure was learning the flying trapeze!

👩‍🏫 Lessons learned

So what did I learn? 

I learned that I can do anything. I learned that YouTube is an amazing resource. I learned about sales, marketing, business, copywriting, product sourcing, taxes, contracts, negotiations, regulations, coding, dealing with offshore programmers, wireframing, graphic design, monetization methods, app store marketing, gamification techniques, facebook ads, video editing, and more.

Probably a thousand more lessons.

The biggest lesson, though?

You can’t be afraid to fail.

You have to be more afraid of asking yourself “What if I would’ve…” in the future.

Think about it…

What’s the worst thing that can happen to you? You lose a little money, some of your free time? Chances are you aren’t going to go hungry or homeless. (Fun fact about ramen noodles - you could eat three meals a day for an entire year for just $142.65)

No, the worst thing that can happen is that your ego gets hurt. That’s it. By the way, the way you fix that is by not caring about what other people are going to think. It’s none of their business anyway!

Now…

My question to you is: What’s holding you back? What are you willing to fail at in order to achieve your successes?

✅ Pro Tip: When you face that failure head on, stare him down and tell him: “I may get knocked down. But I will get up again. And you are NEVER gonna keep me down!

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🎁 Other Tidbits

These are the things that I’m listening to, watching, reading, discovering, or enjoying this week.

📻 Listen - How just one inch between tables can make a difference between a restaurant being profitable or not (The Sporkful)

📺 Watch - Go with your Gut Feeling - TED talk about trusting your gut instincts (Magnus Walker - Cool Porsche guy)

📖 Read - Jeff Bezos’ opening statement to the U.S. House committee. It was a master class on entrepreneurship, big ideas, and customer obsession (I shared this on LinkedIn last week, but I’ve re-read it several times already - Pure Gold!)

🛒 Buy - Inspirational artwork for your workspace or home. I just ordered this one for my home office (Ikonick)

📈 Trending Now - This week’s trend comes from a great friend and one of our readers, Mariella. She sent me the following note: “Want a new trend... follow these girls... we follow the parents (our rich journey) and now the kids have a YouTube channel on finance for kids... kids talking about money. I hope it becomes a thing” - Having two kids of my own, I definitely hope kids talking about money becomes a thing!

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‘Till next time...

Ralph Q out!

P.S. - Check out my Facebook group if you want more of this kind of stuff, have questions, or want to chat with other cool people 😎

P.S.S. - If you can think of anyone who can benefit from a little inspiration, motivation, and business advice, please share this newsletter with them. You can send them this link: http://ralphq.com/newsletter 

P.S.S.S. - If this is your first time reading this newsletter and want to read some of the previous ones, you can find them here: http://ralphq.com/past-issues