Byrne Rhonda - Hero (The Secret)

If you haven’t acquired the necessary qualities of discernment or good judgment to realize your dream, failures and mistakes will ensure you develop them. You could put your trust in something because of what someone else said, and it fails. You could make a decision without thinking things through and find you’ve made a big mistake. When you reflect back on the failure or the mistake, however, you might see there were red flags or warning signs you ignored that were telling you something wasn’t right. In other words, you ignored your intuition.

LAYNE BEACHLEY

Mistakes are really a learning opportunity, and the only mistake is not learning the lesson the first time. And the great thing about the Universe is it’ll keep providing you with the same lesson until you learn it.

You might see that you needed to do your own research and not trust in other people’s opinions so blindly. Or you might see that you needed to think things through more carefully before taking a big action.

“I learned more from the one restaurant that didn’t work than from all the ones that were successes.”

Wolfgang Puck

Restaurateur and Businessman

G. M. RAO

We must celebrate failures, for they arise out of action and therefore become the greatest grounds for learning. And we must concentrate on that learning so that mistakes do not get repeated. To encourage new ideas, new approaches, experimentation, and innovation, a mistake should not be censured.

When you take responsibility for your failures and mistakes, without blaming anyone else, and you look for the lessons hidden within them, they become powerful tools for your advancement on the Hero’s Journey. Mistakes and failures are inevitable; whether you extract the magic they contain is up to you!

LAIRD HAMILTON

There’s a formulaic process. First you have to believe that it’s possible. Then you have to be willing to fail; you get back up and do it again, and pretty soon you’re like, “Wow, I’m going.” And then, “I’m getting a little better,” and then, “I’m good at this.” Pretty soon you’re at the top, and then you realize it wasn’t about getting to the top, it was about that process. And you get addicted to the process of it. Miracles

PETER BURWASH

I have been very grateful for the moments that have happened, and realized that we’re not that independent. We’re very dependent, not just on oxygen but on good fortune, good timing, and other people.

There may be trials on the Hero’s Journey, but you’re also going to experience the miracles that happen along the way. In truth, the miracles far outweigh the trials. From my own experience, the magic and miracles that happened while I was on my way to my dream were as thrilling as the realization of my dream. When the Universe starts lining things up for you in a way that no human mind could ever do, I promise you, it will take your breath away. You will ask time and time again, “How did that happen?!”

LIZ MURRAY

I was sleeping on the streets, and I used to shoplift; not the best habit in the world, but I needed to eat. I also used to go to Barnes & Noble and shoplift self-help books, and I would read them in the stairwells. Then my story spread and I got a call from this Stephen Covey company. I went out and I spoke, and it took me until I was standing in front of him to realize that I had stolen his book. I had to tell him, “I shoplifted your book.” And he told me it was on the house.

Liz Murray was just eighteen years old when Stephen Covey asked her to share the stage with him to tell her story. That day proved to be a miraculous one in Liz’s life, because it set her on a path of public speaking to share her story and inspire others. Liz went on to write her own best-selling book, and to share the stage with people such as Mikhail Gorbachev, the Dalai Lama, and Tony Blair.

PETER BURWASH

At the end of 1968, when I was on the tennis tour, I didn’t have any money left. I was playing with Issy Sharp, founder of Four Seasons Hotels, and he said, “What are you going to do?” I said, “I don’t know, maybe I’ll go back to teach school.” And he said, “What do you need to stay on the tour?” I said, “Two world air tickets at $1,800 each. That $3,600 will allow me to stay.” The next day I went down to his office and he reached across the table with a $3,600 check and said, “Good luck.” That turned my life around. That was a very, very integral part of being able to stay on the tour, which allowed me to get a good world ranking. And everything else was history after that.

MASTIN KIPP

I was couch surfing, living in an 8 x 8 feet pool house in my ex-girlfriend’s parents’ house. The Daily Love was my hobby, but I had just decided to do it full time. After a month of tweeting, emailing, being all in, and dealing with massive uncertainty, Kim Kardashian tweeted to over 2 million people to follow my Twitter handle. I’ll never forget that moment. Overnight we went from 1,000 to 10,000 followers. I felt the presence of the divine urging me to keep going.

Layne Beachley’s big dream was to become the world’s best female surfer, and to do that she had to beat the world record of four consecutive world titles. Layne was competing in the final event of the year for her fourth world title. The athlete with the highest points accrued over several events in the year wins the world title, and going into the final event of the year Layne was leading in points and her fourth world title was within her grasp.

LAYNE BEACHLEY

It was 2001, and it was the final event of the year. I was in the quarterfinals and I fell on my last wave, which cost me the heat and which potentially cost me my fourth consecutive title. I felt like I had let the whole world down. I was so deeply devastated because my ultimate goal was to match and then beat the current record, which was four consecutive world titles.

Layne needed a miracle. Several of Layne’s competitors now had an opportunity to overtake Layne’s total points and claim the world title if they won the contest that day.

LAYNE BEACHLEY

Pauline Menczer, the 1993 world champion, walked past me and said, “Don’t worry, we’ve got this covered.” She wanted to see me win that world title. She went on a rampage to demolish the competition, preventing anyone the opportunity to claim the world title. Pauline went on to win the contest, and handed me my fourth consecutive world title in the process. She had really poor eyesight and couldn’t afford eye correction surgery, so I decided to pay for her eye correction surgery as a thank you.

Layne Beachley went on to win six consecutive world titles.

LIZ MURRAY

When my life story was printed in the New York Times, I learned a lot about someone being a hero. All these people from my community showed up at my school, and they were all there to help me. I didn’t know them. In their arms they were carrying baked brownies, clothing out of their closets, and gift packages for college, and they were just standing there like a band of angels. I had been homeless; they paid rent on an apartment. They built beds to sleep on. They turned on the lights. They filled up the refrigerator. Everybody was wonderful in their own way, but there was this one lady. She came about three weeks after that group of people, and she immediately shook my hand in front of my school, introduced herself, and apologized to me. I asked her for what, and she said, “Because I read about you in the New York Times, I pinned the article on my refrigerator, and every day I tell myself I’m going to help you. But then I’m, ‘Oh, no time, no money – can’t do it.’ Well, sweetheart, this morning I was doing my laundry and it dawned on me. Liz must have some laundry.” And that’s when I realized she was standing in front of this minivan. She looked at me and said, “Well, do you have some laundry?” We went and got my clothes, and she cleaned them once a week every week. She told me, “I can’t do much, but I can do that.” And if everybody on this planet would get that lesson – I can’t do much, but I can do that. I learned that you can help other people in small ways that are available to you right this second. If we all lived that way, you would see a shift in the thinking on this planet.