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Overcome Failure | Manifest Anything You Want


How to overcome challenges, how to overcome difficulties so that you can attract whatever it is that you want in your life. This was asked to me on an Instagram direct message so I'm answering that in today's blog.

I'm trying to answer more questions in videos, so if you've got some, you can direct message me on Instagram @ jakeducey or you can email my team jd@jakeducey.com. I'll do my best to answer them. Today's was how to overcome failure.

When I was trying to get my career off the ground, my wife Ashley and I went on two things; we went on Vans Warped tour and I was the first ever motivational speaker on Vans Warped tour.

vans

 It's pretty out of place to be a motivational speaker on Vans Warped tour. It's largely a punk type of concert, and there's 52 in about 60 days. There's 10,000 to 20,000 people between the ages of generally 12 and 30 years old. They've never had a motivational speaker and it's music. I come in with motivational books, trying to sell my books and people didn't know who I was so it was like a serious uphill grind.

You sleep in a tour bus for two months and sleep a few hours every night. The gates to the concert open at 9:00 AM. People didn't know who I was, so I wasn't getting 10,000 people in the crowd to hear me speak and selling thousands of books every day. I had to grind it out.

What I started doing was before any other artist in the entire place, before most of them were even awake, the attendees of the event by the thousands and thousands of people. This was the biggest traveling music concert. It's no longer in existence anymore. It went on for 20 something years. It was the biggest moving concert in North America.

It was predominantly 90 degrees, but when you're doing the south and the east in the summer, you're getting 100 degrees Florida. You're getting over 100 degrees with 100 percent humidity. Even if it's pouring rain, the concerts still go on.

concert

What I started doing was I'd be the first person up, and I would go because no one knew who I was. None of the attendees knew I was. I had to go personally sell my books. I couldn't just stand on stage and then all of a sudden a bunch of people buy my stuff. They would start lining up at the gates to try to get in two hours early. The doors open at nine. I'd show up at 7:00 AM or so and I would sell my books one by one in line to thousands of people.

I'd start at the very first person and say "Hey, what's up? How you doing today? My name Jake Ducey. I'm the first ever motivational speaker on Vans Warped tour." They'd be like "Uh, okay." They didn't know what that was. They were like "Okay, I'm here for music." I'm like "Hey man, so I wrote this book, and what I did is I backpacked around the world. When I was 19 years old, I dropped out of college. I wrote this book about it. You know, Vans Warped tour is about punk rock and being yourself. This book is about the message about me being myself and following my heart. It's a fantastic book about traveling the world, inspiring you to chase your biggest dreams. Really epic stories about backpacking in the world. I'm selling it. Would you like one?"

I said the same thing and I went one person after the next person. People would say no. I'd be like "Come on, man. This is going to change your life. Come on, man." They're like "Nah, no." I'm like "Dude, I'll sell to you for five bucks if you won't buy it for 15. I'll sell it to you for $4. What do you have?"

I would bargain with every person. We sold 5,000 books, which means we probably got denied by 15,000 people. One out of three, one out of four would say yes. I would go at 7:00 AM, before the day started. One person. I'd do that to one, then I walked to the next group and say "Hey, what's up you guys?" Some people thought they were all cool so they'd try to make fun of me sometimes.

Some people would just like try to give me crap and say things like "I'll give you my shoe for a book." I had to deal with literal, total to my face rejection hundreds of times. Hundreds, everyday. Then, I'd go one person one person after the next for two or three hours before the gates would even open. Next person. Next person. This person would say "no", I'd walk one foot, go to the next person. The person that just said no could hear me say the same thing again.

I'd go introduce myself and say "Hey, what's up man? I'm Jake Ducey. What's your name?" "Hey, my name's Jessica. Hey, what's up Jessica? I'm the first motivational speaker..." I'd do the same thing over and over and over and over and over. I wasn't a big name. I didn't have a successful YouTube channel at that time. No one knew who I was, so I didn't get paid to be on Vans Warped tour. I didn't even get paid a dollar.

zero

Ashley came with me. Ashley was in debt. I wasn't making any money, so I had to sell books. Even if there were five bucks, I needed to sell them. We could not end with no money after the entire summer because Ashley quit her job to come do this. We couldn't end with no money. We we're going to be screwed if we did. I would go for two or three hours and I would talk to 300 or 400 people selling my book before the day started.

Then from 9:00 to 6:00 while the concert was going on in 100 degree weather, I'd spend the next eight hours, one by one, walking up to people during the concerts while people are at vending machines trying to get their favorite artists in line to get an album and a book signed.

I'd go walk over to their row. There was a big artist and there's a thousand people in line to get an album and a signature. I'd start at the back of the line and I'd be like "What's up man? You're here to see so and so about to get an album?" "Yeah, yeah. I am." "Cool man." "What's up?"

"That's awesome. Anyways, while you're waiting, my name is Jake Ducey. I'm the first ever motivational speaker on Vans Warped tour." I would talk to 500 to I don't know how many people a day. A lot of people would say no. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds would say no. Some people would just try to be cool. Maybe they were like a 17 year old or a 24 year old and they're trying to be cool, so they're trying to give me a hard time.

I did that every day. I was sick. I lost my voice. I did it every day. It didn't matter if I was sick. It didn't matter if I was tired. I would talk for 10 hours to people every single day, day after day. Then we'd get in the van. I'd fall asleep, wake up again, 6:00 AM. I'm out there by 7:00. Do the same thing again, day after day after day. City after city, after city, after city after city. No lunch breaks. No nothing. I'd get no after, no after, no after, no. You know what I would tell myself?

This isn't about other people saying yes or no to me. This is about me committing to my goal. That's how you overcome failure. It's not about other people. It's about you committing to your goal. My physical body will be dead one day. Your physical body will be gone one day. Just your physical body - your soul is going to live on forever. Your eternal.

The essence of who you are is eternal, but before I'm gone, I want to know I committed a hundred percent to my potential. I want to know I committed a hundred percent to my dreams. I want to know I committed a hundred percent to the God-given infinite potential that God gave me. I want you to do the same thing. That's how you overcome failure. It's not about failure. It's about me committing to myself.

committed


I'm not going to let 400 nos in one day stop me. I got told more nos in one summer then I had in my entire life combined. In one summer on Vans Warped tour. I got told "no" more times in one 60 or 70 day period then then most people will ever get told no in five lifetimes, but it wasn't about the no's. It was about me committing to myself. I reversed it in my mind. It wasn't about them. It was about how committed am I to realizing my potential.

Guess what? When I eventually shifted my business model and I started making videos on YouTube, it was easy because I'd already talked to thousands and thousands of people. I'd already tried to figure out a million ways to get people's attention. I'd be doing my speeches on Vans Warped tour. No one wants to listen to a motivational speaker on Vans Warped tour. They're here to rock out, not get pumped up with a motivational speaker.

No one would come to my talk sometimes. Sometimes, I'd have a couple of hundred people, sometimes I'd have no one. What I would do is figure out how to get people's attention when I'd get the mic to go up on stage. So sometimes I would pretend. I learned this from Bill Hicks, who is a comedian. He did an opening act at a Metallica concert one time.

What he did is he pretended that he lost his contacts in the crowd to get everyone's attention, so I started doing that. I don't even have contacts. I pretended I lost them. I'd be like "Hey guys, I'm really sorry I was supposed to come up here right now. I cannot see crap right now. I was walking up here and I dropped my contacts. I'm blind as a bat without them. Can everyone stop right now? Please listen to my voice right now. Please, please, please listen to my voice right now. Can everyone stop right now?

Just look around and see if you could see my contacts. Can anyone see them? I would let this go on so people started paying attention. Sometimes, I would get some punk rock kid that heckled me. I'd get everyone's attention, then I'd go "Oh no, I'm just playing man. I don't have any contacts. You know how you were looking on the ground for my contacts?"

"Have you ever noticed that we spend our life the same way, constantly looking outside of ourselves for validation from other people, but you can't find that validation from other people, so you're constantly looking, but it's an empty search? Just like you were constantly looking for my contacts, but they weren't there so it would be an empty search because you would never find them. Raise your hand if you've ever tried to live your life for other people." That's how I started getting people's attention.

When I started sitting in my house in a comfy chair with flowers behind me, it became easy. How I overcame failure was by making a commitment to myself to actualize my own potential. It wasn't about failure. Every failure was an opportunity for me to recommit to God's potential that was placed within my heart and my soul. That's what failure is asking you to do.

How committed are you to making your life the greatest life you can, and reaching the fullest level of your potential? Not just for yourself, but for God, for the universe and for everyone that you love so that when you're gone, other people say "You know my daddy, my brother, my friend. Dude, they were unbelievable. They were so inspiring. They were so great. They showed up every day and they worked hard on being the best version of their self. They were committed to the greatest version of their self. They lived with values. They live with character. They lived with integrity. They were serious about realizing their talents."

overcome

That's what it's about. All of that being said, that was even before I had spent three to five years before then with a self published book. Nobody would publish my book, so what I did then is I printed 5,000 copies of my book. I sold door to door. I went to every farmers market pretty much in southern California and Oregon.

While people were buying kale, I would stop people in the middle and I would say "Hey, what's up? My name is Jake Ducey. I wrote this book." I would try to get people to buy my book. I'd get told no all the time. I rented a table at the University of Oregon in Eugene at the campus during the weekdays, during the school days.

I rented a table in the middle of the campus. I would stop the kids on their way to class and try to sell them my book. I don't think more than five percent of people said yeah to me. Thousands of people, to my face have told me no. They didn't want to buy my book - between Warped tour and between the earlier stages of my career, thousands of them.

Guess what? Thousands of other people have told me my work has changed their life. I still sold 10,000 copies of that self published book. I ended up getting a publishing contract with Penguin Random House, the number one publishing company in the world. The forward to my first book with Penguin Random House and the forward to the introduction to it was by the author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, Jack Canfield.

I was still able to build an international brand, inspiring millions of people, even though tens of thousands of people have said no to my face. I've had people laugh at me. I've had people take my book at Warped tour throw it on the ground, trying to be funny in front of their friends. I'd pick the book up and be like "Cool, thanks man. I'm going to go to the next person."

I didn't even waste my time. I didn't try to be like "Hey man, be nice. Hey man, why are you doing? I'm trying as hard as I can." I was just like "Cool, bro. I'll move on to the next person. It's all good. This isn't personal. This is this about me. It's not about you. It's about me and God. It's about me and the universe, me and the creator of the universe.

creator


I'm inviting you to have that mindset. Your failures are a stepping stone for you to commit to your greatness because at the end of the day, when I lie down in bed, even if I had where I couldn't sell crap on Warped tour - I had some of those days where I walked away after starting at 7:00 AM till 7:00 PM working tents while on my feet the whole time. I'm more tired than the longest, hardest basketball game I ever played when I was in high school. I'm lying there and I had a bad day where maybe I sold six books, which was pretty bad considering some days I had sold a couple hundred for the amount of time I was putting in.

I'd lie in bed at night and I was fulfilled because it wasn't about the results. It wasn't about people saying yes. It wasn't about people buying my book. It wasn't about getting the meager few dollars I'd get when I would bargain for people with the book. It was about me being on purpose and me being all in on my dreams that I wrote on a piece of paper when I said "This is who I'm going to be."

I'm inviting you to have that mindset and that type of commitment to yourself. If you really want to amplify it,

This is going to rewire your mind and make it that much easier to overcome failure, obstacles, hard work, people saying no, people saying you can't do it. Who cares?

It's not about them. It's about you. It's about you and your greatness. You and your commitment to God, you and your commitment to your happiness, your joy to your limited time on planet earth, for you being in you ending it and saying "Man, I truly lived. I truly lived"

Comment down below "I love myself. I'm committed to myself."

If you want one final takeaway, every time someone said no, I would say "No, next" and I'd go to the next person. Deep breath. "No, next." Next person: "No man. I'm not going to buy your motivational book." No, next.

"Hey, what's up man? I'm Jake Ducey." 'I don't want a book." Next person. No, next. When someone says no, you say next. When someone says no, you say next about you and your commitment to your greatness. Comment down below "No, next." I hope this message speaks to you. Let me know if it does this.

My Instagram is just my name @ jakeducey. You can go ahead and direct message me on Instagram and share your question. I'll try to answer it. You can also email us: jd@jakeducey.com. I'll do my best to answer that. Please let me know.

Does this blog speak to you? If so, comment it down below and let me know how it touches your soul.

If this speaks to you in overcoming failure, or if difficulty or challenges is a theme in your life right now, read this blog every single day.

You need to get this ingrained in your mind. You got to get the spirit of what I'm saying ingrained in your mind. Re-read this, read this again tomorrow. Share this with your friend that might be having a hard time and talk about the big ideas.

If you haven't yet already,

Use that brainwash yourself for success, regardless of the failures, negativity, difficult people not believing in you, doubting you.

Regardless of what's happening around you, use this to train your mind for success. You owe it to yourself to be the best version of yourself. I know there's fantastic things in your future, in store with you.

Stay strong. Keep your head up high. Keep that smile on your face. Life is beautiful. Count your blessings. There's a lot of things that you can be grateful for, even if things aren't going your way right now.

Look around right now real quick and name off a couple of things you're grateful for. I'd love to know one thing you're grateful for.

Comment down below one thing you are grateful for. I know there's tons of people with blogs out there and you chose to watch mine. I'm honored and grateful for that. Thank you.

About the author

Jake Ducey is a two-time published author with Penguin/Random-House (The Purpose Principles and Profit From Happiness), a leading speaker for his generation having been featured in TEDx Youth, hired by mega organizations such as Nielsen and Accenture, and a leader who has already inspired countless thousands of young people to seek meaningful career success and to make a difference in the world.

Jake Ducey

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