50 times will be enough

(Or the secret recipe for success that nobody is talking about) 

One day, I heard the phrase: “Do it at least 50 times, and eventually it will work out”. It made me stop and think: how many times do we quit after trying only once or twice? Suddenly, it all made sense to me. The only way to truly learn something is to fail — and the more you fail, the more you learn. 

Think about yourself as a child. We didn’t quit learning how to walk, talk, or read after the first try. We all know it takes time to learn, and “Rome wasn’t built in a day”, yet we keep forgetting about it and give up after day one. 

I agree failing doesn’t feel like so much fun, it could be humiliating, frustrating and painful. I know a lot about failure. My first year in journalism was an absolute disaster. It was also my first year in the university, I got a part time job in a local newspaper. One night I rewrote a text about local gallery event at least 20 times because editor in chief wasn’t happy with my writing skills. I failed my driving test three times. I applied for 100 jobs and had my personal record of 0 replies. Last night we were making homemade pasta and my dough was perfect only on the 22-nd try (yes, I counted it). Each time I felt horrible. But every time I tried I felt I am getting better and better.  

You can call me crazy but I started to get obsessed with failure this past couple of years. Nothing beats the thought that tomorrow — or maybe next week — I’ll be better than I am today. All of my attempts, hours of work, failures and mistakes started feeling like a road to somewhere. Maybe I don’t know where it goes, but I know for sure I will be smarter, stronger and more successful. Some people couldn’t even make it to this point.  

If I had given up after my first try, I would have never got any job. I would have never moved to Canada. I would never have started my own business. I would have never collected all those happy memories, and I would have never become who I am today. 

Next time you want to give up on something, think about how many times it will take to learn it. Trust me 20 times will be already enough, but if you try 50 times that will be a success.