What If You're Only 25 Failures Away from Success?

25 Failures to Freedom: Your Path to Unstoppable Success Begins with Embracing Setbacks (Living Lucky® Podcast)

What if your greatest breakthrough is just a handful of "failures" away? On this game-changing Living Lucky® Podcastepisode, Jason and Jana Banana tackle your deepest fears about falling short by asking a powerful question: "If you knew you were 25 failures away from your goal, how fast would you want to get through those 25 failures?"

We expose the protective shields our egos build after embarrassment or rejection—whether from bombing on a stand-up stage, a painful water-skiing fall, or business setbacks. The truth we uncover is profoundly liberating: failure isn't permanent, quitting is. When you reframe failure as essential feedback and a necessary stepping stone, you strip away its power to paralyze you with fear.

Drawing on lessons from Thomas Edison's 10,000 attempts at the light bulb, we demonstrate that success rarely arrives without multiple tries, adjustments, and vital lessons learned. Hear personal stories from stand-up comedy, network marketing, stock trading, and even the challenging Camino de Santiago, proving how perseverance through discomfort leads to immense growth.

This episode is a masterclass in mindset shift and personal development, teaching you to view each setback as progress rather than defeat. Learn to dance with fear, celebrate every attempt, and embrace the journey, knowing that your greatest achievements might be just a few "failures" away. Stop letting the fear of imperfection hold you back! The most successful people aren't those who never failed—they're those who failed forward more times than you can imagine.

Ready to unlock your potential and start moving faster toward your dreams? Tune in and discover how to redefine your relationship with setbacks, cultivate resilience, and create an upward success cycle. Your ultimate success story is waiting just beyond your comfort zone!

How to overcome fear of failure? Is failure a step to success? The power of reframing setbacks. Thomas Edison's lesson on failure. How to build resilience and perseverance? What is "failing forward"? Motivation to keep trying after rejection. Mindset shifts for entrepreneurial success. Why successful people fail more often. What is the biggest obstacle to success? How many failures before success? Is quitting worse than f

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*Previously Recorded

Chapters

• 0:00 The Power of the Reframe
• 2:14 Failure is Not Permanent
• 5:38 Failing as a Goal
• 8:32 Learning from Each Attempt
• 10:52 Inviting Failure and Moving Forward
• 13:22 One Foot in Front of Another

Transcript

Jana Shelfer: 0:00

Are you ready to create a life you crave? Let's spin that doom loop of negativity into an upward success cycle and start Living Lucky®.

Jason Shelfer: 0:14

Good morning.

Jana Shelfer: 0:15

I'm Jana, I'm Jason and we are Living Lucky®. You are, too. The power of the reframe oh, that's what we're talking about today.

Jason Shelfer: 0:25

I love it Because Jason read this quote and it said If you knew you were 25 failures away from your goal, how fast would you want to get through those 25 failures?

Jana Shelfer: 0:37

Oh my gosh, I would want to fail so quickly and so hard just so that I could get through the 25, because I would know the success is Right on the other side? Yes, and you tell me this right when I decide I'm going to sign up for another stand-up comedy class.

Jason Shelfer: 0:57

Well, it struck me too.

Jana Shelfer: 0:58

Which, if any of you listen to our podcast, you know that I've had some deep wounded failures when it comes to stand-up comedy, which is just a horrific feeling If you've ever been on stage and you are bombing your set and your jokes are not flying and all of a sudden you're just full of self-doubt uncertainty and to think you've only got 20 more to go. And you're just looking for any way to get off that stage without too much heckling.

Jason Shelfer: 1:28

With a little bit of dignity intact and this happens to so many people is we don't try things because we're so scared of the failure and we know in our soul that failure is the way to success.

Jana Shelfer: 1:41

Yeah, we've learned before that there is no failure, it's only feedback.

Jason Shelfer: 1:47

And as long as you're failing forward.

Jana Shelfer: 1:49

You're still progressing. However, it hurts like a mofo, and there is something about when you are wounded, a scab forms and then it's harder to get up next time. Yes, do you know what I'm saying? 100%. There's like this shield that wants to protect to get up next time. Yes, do you know what I'm saying? 100%, 100%. There's like this shield that wants to protect your pride and your ego from having to experience that again.

Jason Shelfer: 2:14

Yes, and our natural instinct is to protect ourselves. It's self-preservation. So how do we, how do we accept this failure as just a kind of a stepping stone, because no one is good at anything the first time.

Jana Shelfer: 2:30

I know, but I always want to be I want to be the best.

Jason Shelfer: 2:33

Well, intellectually, I think in the older we get, the more intellectual we can get about the idea of whatever we're trying to accomplish and it makes perfect sense in our heads. Like I want to start water skiing again but I have held back because I'm like it's going to be hard, I'm not going to like I've made up the story about all the failures.

Jana Shelfer: 2:54

Or that one in particular. Yes, right when.

Jason Shelfer: 2:58

I tore my hamstring.

Jana Shelfer: 3:00

Yeah, that was horrible.

Jason Shelfer: 3:02

And it's been eight years since I've been back on skis. So now when I look at okay, well, what if I knew that I was only 10 failures away from success? Or 25 failures away from success? That puts it into like I can see the other side of the mountain, I can see the top of the mountain, I can get there.

Jana Shelfer: 3:20

Yeah, and it also is. It kind of diminishes the failure. It says it's not permanent, it takes the power away.

Jason Shelfer: 3:28

Yes, it says failure is not permanent, and the truth is failure isn't permanent. I know Quitting is permanent.

Jana Shelfer: 3:37

Oh okay, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing bing.

Jason Shelfer: 3:41

That's crazy. There's a little bell going off in my brain it says okay, so why don't we just start trying? Why don't we kind of get curious and explore and allow for the bumps and bruises?

Jana Shelfer: 3:55

It's okay, because I don't like to not be perfect.

Jason Shelfer: 4:00

I can relate.

Jana Shelfer: 4:00

I don't want to mess up my life On a real note.

Jason Shelfer: 4:02

I can relate.

Jana Shelfer: 4:03

I do not want to be the one that's like I'm the one that made a mistake and screwed up my life.

Jason Shelfer: 4:09

And for me. So I don't get super embarrassed about anything, but I also feel like I don't want to waste time. So when I think of failure, like when I think of me skiing I'm like, well, if I'm gonna not be good at it for a month 25 times or 25 times, that's it.

Jana Shelfer: 4:27

That's several days of skiing oh, that's not only several days, that's several weeks, right being sore and being on the couch and being taking some face plants. You know all kinds of things it's gonna hurt yeah, I know 25, you're helping you're helping right now.

Jason Shelfer: 4:41

I appreciate it, but the thing is knowing that I can get through it if I think about it in the sense that everyone falls when they start. Everyone does this and it's just okay. Well, how many times do I have to do that? Knowing that there's an end in sight makes it palatable.

Jana Shelfer: 5:01

Do you remember when you and I got involved with this company and it was one of those companies where you had to get your friends involved in the company?

Jason Shelfer: 5:12

Do you remember that it was kind of a network? Yeah, it had to be something similar to network marketing. Yeah.

Jana Shelfer: 5:17

And I remember saying I love your company. And I remember saying I love your company, I just don't want to have to go convince my friends to get on board. And the leader of that group said you know what, Jana? I want you to go out and get as many no's as you possibly can.

Jason Shelfer: 5:37

I want you to go out and get as many rejections.

Jana Shelfer: 5:38

The goal is to get rejections as you possibly can, and if you can get 25 rejections, then I'll never ask you to do this again. And by golly, like one of the first people I asked, they were like this sounds great.

Jason Shelfer: 5:56

Jana, because it was good.

Jana Shelfer: 5:58

I want to know more and I was like, oh wait, you're supposed to reject me.

Jason Shelfer: 6:02

Yeah, I'm looking for no's right now. I'm looking for 25 rejections.

Jana Shelfer: 6:06

That's what I'm looking for.

Jason Shelfer: 6:08

Yeah, you're failing me in my failures. Huh, damn it.

Jana Shelfer: 6:15

Oh, but I feel like this is such a great reframe.

Jason Shelfer: 6:18

You know, because there's so many times in life where Well, we tell ourselves this story that failure is going to last forever.

Jana Shelfer: 6:27

Yeah, and that is going to hurt and that we're not going to recover. However, we are, we're here now, and we're here now.

Jason Shelfer: 6:34

I wonder if part of that is the fact that we know there's always room for progress, so there's always room to grow more. So does it feel like failure will always be there because we're always stepping a little bit further outside of our comfort zone every time and we're going to get bounced back. It will be that two steps forward, one step back.

Jana Shelfer: 6:58

Yeah, it's like the or you just sound like Paula Abdul Just as far as one step back, but it's kind of like like I've learned this lesson in the stock market as well.

Jason Shelfer: 7:09

Right, that's where it hurts A stock market does not continuously go up forever and ever and ever.

Jana Shelfer: 7:15

Eventually it's going to correct itself a little bit.

Jason Shelfer: 7:20

Yeah, it's going to push back.

Jana Shelfer: 7:21

Knowing that, okay, if we go two steps forward, we're probably going to come one step back and we'd still want a little.

Jason Shelfer: 7:29

Yeah, yes, but what do we do? We look at how much could I have won?

Jana Shelfer: 7:34

if I stayed in. I know that's why.

Jason Shelfer: 7:37

How much could I have won if I got out earlier?

Jana Shelfer: 7:40

I feel like some of the greatest life lessons have come from learning to trade in the stock market, learning about options. It will bring out every psychological every feeling, every emotion that you have ever had. All of your trauma will come out when you start trading in the stock market.

Jason Shelfer: 7:58

Because the pocketbook is where it hurts.

Jana Shelfer: 8:02

Oh my gosh, which is a limiting belief. That is a limiting belief. However, we've heard that before, right?

Jason Shelfer: 8:09

That is where we feel it. We've heard that before. Right, that is where we feel it. That's where a lot of us feel, like I won't exist if I lose it all, or if I lose X amount, okay, but it's just a tool, it's just. I mean, it's back to this thing. If you knew you're going to fail 25 times before you reached your goal but you would reach your goal how quickly would you invite?

Jana Shelfer: 8:32

that failure. So if I knew I could lose 10 pounds after going to the gym 25 times, I would be all over it. I would be all over. I'd be like, okay, I just need to go to the gym 25 times. However, it doesn't feel like there's that certainty at the end of 25 failures.

Jason Shelfer: 8:50

Well, there's not the certainty after the first one, there's not the certainty after the second one. Well, there's not the certainty after the first one, there's not the certainty after the second one, there's not the certainty after the third one but there's not even certainty.

Jana Shelfer: 8:57

After 25 times I could go to stand-up comedy. I could get up on stage 25 times and totally fail, fall on my face, leave there going. Oh my god, that was just.

Jason Shelfer: 9:08

Horrible. I got radishes thrown at me.

Jana Shelfer: 9:13

And what if Jana doesn't figure out how?

Jason Shelfer: 9:19

to overcome, I think by doing it over and, over and over again, you figure it out. You do, I would bet. I'm 98% sure that by doing it over and over and over again, you figure it out, and over and over again, you figure it out and you do become the expert.

Jana Shelfer: 9:37

You do yes, if you do it long enough.

Jason Shelfer: 9:39

It's like Edison with the light bulb. I mean it was 10,000 tries.

Jana Shelfer: 9:45

Yeah, not 25, 10,000.

Jason Shelfer: 9:46

So his coach came in and said Thomas, what if you're only 9,900 tries away from getting this thing?

Jana Shelfer: 9:54

99. 9,999 tries.

Jason Shelfer: 9:58

He goes. Oh, so you're telling me there's a chance.

Jana Shelfer: 10:01

That's exactly it, and that's what he did, so he kept going.

Jason Shelfer: 10:05

And then it built from there. So he built on his success from there.

Jana Shelfer: 10:11

There's something here. I mean. I feel like those that are super successful in life. If you really sit down and talk to them, they say well, you're seeing my success, you have no idea how many? Times I have failed in order to get here.

Jason Shelfer: 10:26

Yes. So the whole point of this is instead of running from fear, invite it into the game, dance with it, dance with it Dance with the fear. Let it step all over your toes if that's what's going to happen.

Jana Shelfer: 10:40

Oh, it's all good. I don't know if I like that it's just part of it.

Jason Shelfer: 10:44

It's just part of the dance Until you learn to put your feet in the right spot.

Jana Shelfer: 10:49

Oh, or kick it out of the way, right spot, oh, or kick it out of the way.

Jason Shelfer: 10:57

Kick it All right. Let's wrap it up. Read the quote again. If you knew you were 25 failures away from your goal, how fast would you want to get through those 25 failures?

Jana Shelfer: 11:03

25 failures away from your goal. Now, we're not guaranteeing that the goal is the 26th try. No, it could be 50.

Jason Shelfer: 11:13

However, it could be 16.

Jana Shelfer: 11:14

If you can start looking at all the progress you make every time you show up.

Jason Shelfer: 11:20

Notice your little wins along the way to give you the wind in your sail 25 tries, 25 tries away. Yeah. So think big, think what you want in life and say, okay, well, let me just try this, let me try it for 25 times and I guarantee you you will learn enough in those 25 tries to get better, significantly better on your 26th.

Jana Shelfer: 11:44

And then you will feel Then it starts getting closer and closer and closer, like hey, now that I've come this far, closer and closer, like hey, now that I've come this far from this plateau, let's try 25 more times.

Jason Shelfer: 11:55

I didn't bring myself this far, to stop here.

Jana Shelfer: 11:58

To stop right now.

Jason Shelfer: 11:59

That's right.

Jana Shelfer: 12:00

Oh, that's such a good quote as well. I think I'm a quote whore.

Jason Shelfer: 12:06

I've come to this realization. Give it to me, baby. I love quotes. I love quotes too.

Jana Shelfer: 12:10

Oh gosh, Tell me more, Tell me more oh you sound like grease. I feed off of all of those affirmations. Okay, so think about this If you have a dream out there, you may be 25 failed attempts away from succeeding.

Jason Shelfer: 12:29

So fun. That's a much better thought than thinking I'm a failure. I'll always fail.

Jana Shelfer: 12:34

And that's the problem is that sometimes we think failure is indefinite.

Jason Shelfer: 12:38

Yes.

Jana Shelfer: 12:39

However, the way you just phrased that, it makes me think okay, you know what. There's a couple things that maybe I've given up on that. I should keep trying, because you know what I may be closer to gold than what I think.

Jason Shelfer: 12:55

This is a lesson that I learned on the Camino de Santiago and I know we've probably given a lot of examples in here, but there were so many times I wanted to quit and it was literally just put one foot in front of the other, like I felt I got lost, I took the wrong path. I was so lonely, it hurt, you had blisters, I had blisters, but I said you know what? One foot in front of the other. And that's really what this is saying Just figure out that next best step and don't worry about the failures. Failures are going to come, they're going to happen, but you grow from that.

Jana Shelfer: 13:29

In fact, we're going to chalk it up as success. If we fail, we succeed.

Jason Shelfer: 13:34

Yes, because you've just gotten closer to success. I'm in for that. We're talking in circles now.

Jana Shelfer: 13:41

Thanks for joining us. Keep Living Lucky®. Go out and fail today Don't fail yourself. Bye-bye. If the idea of Living Lucky® appeals to you, visit us at www. LivingLucky. com.