Latest / YINWorldWide / Failure The Version of You That Had To Die
Transcript
- Liv Yin: This is yin. And these are conversations about discipline, direction, and identity and how they quietly shape who you become. As always, I'm going to be honest with you. Everyone speaks on success like one day it just walked through the door, like they woke up and were on top of the world. But if the path of success is really what you're after, you deserve to know about the scars that come with it, the heartache that comes with it. And the thing inside you that has to be completely destroyed before you ever get there. I carry my failures with me on a daily basis. I carry those scars. And I would be lying to you if I told you I don't think about them during the quiet hours. And by the end of this, you'll decide for yourself if those scars are worth it, if the path is worth it. Failure hurts in a way that is hard to put into words. When you're someone with a vision, someone with direction, someone who's made discipline a way of life, failure is like Mike Tyson hitting you in the stomach with an uppercut because you weren't playing around. You sacrificed for this. You gave your time to it, your energy, your attention. You said no to the other opportunities because you believed this path was worth it. And then one day it all falls apart. And what nobody tells you is that failure doesn't just take the outcome. It takes the future you had already built in your mind, the life you imagined, the conversations you thought you would have, the moments you were already looking forward to. All of it disappears at once. That's why failure hurts so much. Not because you lost, because you lost something that felt real before it ever existed. And if nobody has been honest with you about that, it's time for Yin to strip away all the bullshit. Here's what everyone says about failure. Learn from it. And they're not wrong. You do need to learn from it. But here's what bothers me about that advice. That's the easy part. Let's think about it together. When you fail at something that you gave your all to, you spend every one of your waking moments. reliving every step that you took. You've reflected on it nonstop. So you don't need someone to tell you to reflect on it some more. You've already done that. You know the lesson. The lesson isn't the problem. Problem is what comes after the lesson because knowing what went wrong doesn't give you the strength to stand back up again. And that, that standing back up, is the hardest thing you will ever do. Not because you don't know what to do differently, but because you remember exactly how it felt the last time, the gut punch, the wait, that moment when everything you worked for was taken from you. And your own mind will do everything it can to protect you from feeling that again. It will whisper to you, tell you to be smart, be careful. Maybe this path isn't for you. You see, that's the part nobody answers when they tell you to learn from your failures. They just give you the lesson and leave you at the door. So what actually gets you back up? Well, it's not motivation. Motivation fades. It's not inspiration. Inspiration is borrowed. What gets you back up is knowing who you are. Because when failure hits, and it will hit, it takes almost everything. The outcome, the money, the timeline, the confidence of the people around you. But there is one thing failure cannot touch. And that's your identity. When everything you built is gone, your identity becomes the only asset you have left. And I say that from experience. I've been in rooms where nobody believed in the vision but me. I've been at points where every metric, every number, every piece of evidence suggested it wasn't going to work. And the only thing that kept me moving was this. I never stopped believing I was the kind of person who continues. Not because I had proof, not because I had guarantees, but because I knew who I was. And I could not see myself as someone who quits. That is what gets you back up. That is what failure cannot take from you. Here's what failure does to you that nobody really wants to talk about. It destroys you. Not just your plans, not just your timeline, but you. And I know that sounds like a bad thing, but stay with me. Because the version of you that existed before real failure, that one was overconfident. The one that thought they had it all figured out. The one that let ego sit in the driver's seat. That version of you was never going to get where you were trying to go. Failure has a way of stripping all of that away. It doesn't ask permission. It doesn't care how hard you worked or how good your intentions were. It just takes. And what it takes first is your ego, that false sense of certainty, that belief that you had it all figured out, that armor you were wearing that was actually holding you back. Because here's the truth about ego. Ego tells you that you already know. And the moment you think you already know, you stop growing. Real failure cracks that open. It puts you in a position where you have no choice but to see yourself clearly. Not the version you were performing for the world, not the highlights, the real version. And that moment, as painful as it is, is the beginning of something. Because you cannot build the next version of yourself on top of a broken foundation. The old you has to come down first. That's not a loss. That's the requirement. Every person who has built something real has gone through a demolition and they just don't talk about it because it's not pretty, it's not motivating, it's humbling in a way that changes you permanently. But on the other side of that demolition is the version of you that is actually capable of handling what you've been asking for. I want to leave you with something. You see. The scars don't go away. I need you to understand that. You don't wake up one day and forget the failures, the sleepless nights, the moments where everything fell apart. You carry them with you, every single one. And for a long time, I thought that was a burden. I don't anymore. Because those scars are proof, proof that you are brave enough to try. Proof that you got back up when staying down would have been easier. Proof that you chose growth over comfort. But there is something even more important than the scars. The person they created. Everyone wants to know what success cost. The truth is nobody can answer that question for you because the price isn't money. The price is every version of yourself that has to die along the way. overconfident version, the arrogant version, the version that thought they had everything figured out, the version that believed the path would be easier than it was. Failure takes those versions from you. And that's exactly why it matters. Because if you're fortunate enough to reach the things you've been chasing, you'll eventually realize that the greatest thing failure ever gave you wasn't the lesson. It was the person you became because of it. But before you get there, ask yourself something honest. Do you actually want this life? Or does it just sound good on paper? Because the people who truly want it, they already know the answer. They have the scars to prove it, and they wouldn't trade them for anything. This is Yin. If this resonated, share it with someone who needs to hear it. Not everyone, just someone who's ready. You can find Yin Worldwide Podcast on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. And if you want to go deeper, visit our website at LiveYin.com. That's www.livin dot com. Subscribe if you're committed to the work. If not, that's fine too. This isn't for everyone. Remember, move with intention.