Fear of failure? 3 tips to guarantee success

By Robert Pagliarini, Los Angeles Times - It takes guts and determination to invest the other eight hours into improving yourself or starting a business. If you've taken night classes, started a blog or have participated at Toastmasters, you know you are putting yourself on the line.

It's hard work and there is ample room for disappointment, rejection and, yes, dare I say, failure?

It's the F-word that is more obscene and crude than the other, more well known F-word. What is our obsession with failure? People see failure as a colossal mistake. It's not.

When I start a new venture, I feel like I have nothing to lose and everything to gain. What would happen if I started a venture and it failed? Guess what? I've started ventures and they have failed (gasp!). Big deal.

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You get up to the plate, swing for the fences, and sometimes you miss. Babe Ruth is famous for his home run record, but you might not know that he also held the record for strikeouts for decades.