“Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.” -Winston Churchill
I saw an interview on CBS 60 Minutes last March with Al Gore. Afterwards, I felt compelled to write a post about how traumatic Al’s journey was from almost becoming the president of the United States, to the decision to leave politics far behind and pursue his first love, climate change awareness. I then proclaimed him to be the Midlife Crisis King!
Some would say he gained much by losing much, for example he was the recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.
Everywhere I look I see celebrities that have been through terrible midlife trauma but have come through much better for the experience.
Another example is Elton John. After I learned how he went from being a messed-up pop music superstar to a powerful advocate for AIDS research, I wrote an essay called “Midlife Redemption” which appears in my new book.
And then there’s Ellen Degeneres. Remember the bad times she went through when her TV show was canceled in 1997 soon after she came out as a lesbian? Then she had that very public break-up with Anne Heche. It sure looks like her midlife crisis led to much better things for her.
I know what you’re thinking…who cares! Those people are so rich and famous they can certainly handle their bad times easier than me. But my point is that midlife crises happen to everyone and are always a surprise. They’re always hard to handle when they strike.
Al Gore suffered a terrible depression after the loss of the presidency to you know who. For months he was uncertain what to do next. He said in his CBS interview that “when you lose a lot you also learn a lot” about yourself and your potential to go on to greater things.
I attended a talk last Monday night at the Startup Junkie Underground in Denver. Joel Comm told his story of internet marketing success from adsense books to a new one on Twitter Power.
Two things stuck with me from this talk. One was his advice to “Fail Fast” if you’re going to fail at all, so you can quickly get to the endeavor that will lead to your eventual success. This is so true. Give up quickly when you decide the new enterprise isn’t really what you want to be doing in the long run. I did that with my dating service. I could quickly see it wasn’t me.
Joel also mentioned his realization one day of how the organizational chart looks for the true entrepreneur. CEO: me, VP: me, janitor: me. It’s like I’ve said a thousand time:
I love working for myself, but my boss can be such an slave driver sometimes!
