How to Fail at Life: Lessons for the Next Generation

As the late, great success guru Jim Rohn once said, “It’s too bad failures don’t give seminars. Wouldn’t that be valuable? If you meet a guy who has messed up his life for forty years, you’ve got to say, ‘John, if I bring my journal and promise to take good notes, would you spend a day with me?’”

Well, Jim, your wish has come true.

Author Mark Aspelin has demonstrated exceptional skill at messing up in nearly all of the important areas of life: relationships, money, health, education, career… and the list goes on.

Mark wrote this book for his son as a way to pass along the most important lessons of life, just in case he gets hit by the proverbial beer truck.

You won’t find any fancy buzzwords or “secret formulas” promising fame, fortune, enlightenment, and six-pack abs in 30 days. Mark has read more than his share of personal development books and distilled the ideas that actually hold up into something practical and easy to follow.

There really is a right way and a wrong way to fail.

In a few key areas of life, failure is something to pursue and learn from. When you fail fast and fail big in those areas, you shorten the time it takes to get where you want to go.

In other areas, it is far more efficient to let someone else do the failing for you. A lot of time and suffering can be avoided by learning from the mistakes of others. When it comes to failure, it is often better to watch the movie than be a character in it.

You will still have plenty of opportunities to fail. You might as well narrow the list and fail smart.

This one’s for you, Jim Rohn.

Get ready to take some notes.