It's Tuesday at 2:00pm! (PST Time: I live and work from Southern California)
Greetings to you!
Each week I send out a short leadership blog that's called "Tuesday at 2:00pm". The purpose of this is simply to provide a brief thought on leadership that you can read and think about in just a few minutes. I send it out every week at 2:00pm (PST) and encourage you to make an appointment with yourself to pause and think about the thing I'm writing about.
Russ...
LEADERSHIP QUOTE:
"Success is usually the culmination of controlling failures."Sylvester Stallone
What does this stir up? Either write me HERE or comment at the end of the blog post HERE.
A LITTLE BIT DEEPER:
I'm going to continue some quotes from Sylvester Stallone this month simply as a way to prompt some deeper thinking.
I shared about his book I just read, The Steps, and I shared about how at the age of 12 years old, this movie had a profound impact on my life. It's been fun to revisit it a little bit and I look forward to Stallone's new movie coming out in November, "I Play Rocky", which is his story.
You can read my past few posts on Rocky HERE.
Thanks for letting dive into this for a few weeks. It's been fun and inspirational to camp here a little bit.
The quote above really summarizes Stallone's perspective on life, and it's really a story of resilience. In his book, he talks a lot about his failure. He talks about ideas he had, opportunities he messed up, dreams that died, risks he took in life and in reading his book, I realized that his journey was not a jump to success quickly. What we saw and heard was a long-shot movie idea that caught the attention of the world and won an Oscar. What we didn't see was the journey it took for him to get there, to write that screenplay, to pitch the idea, to fight for it, to have it almost thrown away over and over again.
He talks about his failure.
I'm not sure we talk about that enough. I know for me, I want to "manage the narrative" around my failure so that it doesn't sound so bad or so that I can spin it into the positive.
Here's the reality: Failure is Hard.
I used to say to leaders, "If you fail, then....." I'd give them some canned advice or some inspirational quote.
Some years ago, I switched to, "When you fail, then....".
WE ALL FAIL. We don't all get it right all the time. We make mistakes, we say the wrong thing, we make the wrong move, a decision backfires, we hurt peoples feelings, we invest in the wrong person or the wrong company, we miss the communication and we do this over and over again.
I like these 2 words from Stallone's quote:
First he says CULMINATION. I think what he's saying is that success or victory usually comes at the end of a long series of events. Very seldom does something just work great the first time. It's usually the result of a lot of hard work, many failures and pivots, and then as we gain perspective, we find our way, which might lead to a win. It's a process.
The second word he uses is CONTROLLING. I think he's telling us that how we respond to these failures, how we navigate through them, around them and beyond them is really important. We can't avoid failure, but we can control how we respond and react to failure. This is true for our own failure and that of those on our teams.
If you have experienced failure, WELCOME! You are not Alone! Now what are you going to do with what you've learned?
Are you able to talk about your failure freely or are you embarrassed by it?
DEEPER STILL:
We all have a story. Some people turn their story into a movie to inspire others, others of us just quietly try to live our story in front of others looking for opportunities to inspire and help others.
I've shared a number of my "greatest failure hits" with you through this weekly posting over the years, and I wish I could say that I'm all out of examples, but not only do I continue to remember things from my past, but I also keep experiencing failure, so you'll have to hear more from me.
Here are some reminders today:
GETTING BACK UP MATTERS. In Proverbs we're reminded, "No matter how many times you trip them up, God-loyal people don't stay down long; Soon they're up on their feet..." Don't let your failure define you. Get up, keep moving forward, fix your eyes on the prize.
GOD SHOWS UP IN OUR WEAKNESS. We're reminded in 2 Corinthians that "His grace is sufficient" and "My strength is made perfect in weakness". You Are Not Alone! He is at work in us and through us, in our success and in every failure. In fact God has a way of choosing people who failed miserably. Do you want to be used by God or do you want to be successful on your own?
LOOK FORWARD, NOT BACK. We're told in Philippians to "press on towards the goal" and we're also reminded in Romans that "all things word together for good." Don't ignore your failures and your mistakes, but don't live in them either. There's a time where you will need to move on. Their might be circumstances that you need to navigate, but press on.
Here's the last thing... sometimes it might take some time to fully understand why something happened and what might be learned from the situation. It doesn't always appear easily, but sometimes TIME helps us find perspective and clarity. You don't have to always turn failure into an instant lesson. Sometimes you just have to sit in the pain and disappointment for a while, but I guarantee, with time will come the answers you're looking for!
Are you stuck? Are you having a hard time getting back up after a huge mistake or failure? What's keeping you down?
Things I'm Reading, Listening To and Watching This Week:
This is the book I just finished:The Steps by Sylvester Stallone. Try listening to the Audible version, read by Stallone himself.
The Orange County Barnabas Group is holding our final Gathering of 2026 on November 17th. If you're a business leader in Orange County and you'd like to attend to learn more about us, check out Barnabas HERE or send me a note HERE.
I love this playlist on Apple from The Commitments. Really good soul music.
We had an exciting weekend this past week as the Norte Fire in Orange County came very close to our home. We packed up our cars this past Friday, determining what we needed to take with us because the risk was that the fire could easily turn and move down the hill into our neighborhood. That was quite an experience as we fled to our Son & Daughter-in-Laws home just a few miles away and waited for things to calm down. The following day, the roads opened up and the fire was controlled. It's still burning, but it's not spreading. We are sad for those who lost homes, and we're so thankful for protection in our Community. Shout out to the Orange County Fire Fighters and Law Enforcement who did so much to protect our Community and thank you to those who came from other cities & counties.