13 Things Mentally Strong People Don\'t Do: Take Back Your Power, Embrace Change, Face Your Fears, and Train Your Brain for Happiness and Success pdfdrive com

FACE YOUR FEAR OF FAILURE
My father-in-law, Rob, was the type of guy who could always laugh at himself
and he felt no shame in repeating his stories about failure to everyone. But I
don’t think he considered any of them failures. In fact, I’m pretty certain that if it
made for a good story, he considered his adventure a success.
One story that stands out in my mind stems back from his days as a pilot in
the 1960s. He used to fly people around on private aircraft as an air taxi service.
Sometimes he picked up customers who were getting off a commercial flight and
were then taking an air taxi to their final destination. One particular time he was
picking up a wealthy businessman. Since airport security was a lot more relaxed
back then, he was able to greet the man right when he stepped off his
commercial plane onto the tarmac.
While most private pilots would have waited, holding a sign that read their
customer’s name, that wasn’t Rob’s style. Instead, when his passenger stepped
off the plane, Rob shook his hand and said, “Great to meet you, Mr. Smith. I’ll
be your pilot today.” Mr. Smith responded by saying how flattered he was that
Rob recognized him right away. But what Mr. Smith didn’t know was that Rob
had actually shaken every man’s hand as he stepped off the plane and uttered the
exact same words, “Great to meet you, Mr. Smith.” If the person looked
confused or said he wasn’t Mr. Smith, Rob simply moved on to greet the next
person until he eventually found Mr. Smith.
I think many people would be embarrassed if they greeted someone by the
wrong name, and they may shy away from greeting strangers so robustly in the
future. But not Rob. He’d happily shake a stranger’s hand and call him by the
wrong name. He knew that he’d eventually find Mr. Smith. He wasn’t afraid of
failing over and over again until he got it right.

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If you get used to failing, it becomes a lot less scary, especially once you learn
that failure and rejection aren’t the worst things that could happen to you.