"失敗は単一の壊滅的な出来事ではありません。一晩で失敗することはありません。代わりに失敗とは毎日繰り返されるいくつかの判断ミスです。"

Failure doesn't just happen out of the blue. It's not like you wake up one day and suddenly everything's gone wrong. Nope, it's much sneakier than that. Picture it more like a drip, drip, drip of small mistakes and bad choices that build up over time. That's the heart of this idea.

Now, let's roll back the clock a bit. This way of thinking about failure likely resonates with a lot of folks who’ve faced tough times. It’s all about those little decisions we make daily, and how they stack up. Think of a time in your life when things didn’t go as planned. Maybe it was a failed project at work or a personal goal you couldn’t hit. You didn’t just mess up once, right? It was probably a series of tiny missteps.

Take the story of Blockbuster, for example. Once upon a time, they were the kings of video rental. But they didn’t lose their crown overnight. It was a series of small errors—underestimating Netflix, not adapting to new technology—that led to their downfall. If they had just made a few different choices along the way, who knows? Maybe they’d still be around.

So, how do you avoid falling into this trap? It starts with being mindful of your everyday decisions. Don't just think about the big milestones. Pay attention to the little things, too. Are you consistently putting off tasks, thinking you’ll handle them later? Are you neglecting your health, assuming you’ll get in shape...someday? Those small errors in judgment can add up before you know it.

Here’s a little trick: try to be just 1% better each day. You don’t have to overhaul your entire life overnight. Focus on tiny improvements. Maybe today, you skip that extra episode on Netflix and read a chapter of a book instead. Tomorrow, you wake up 10 minutes earlier. These small changes can accumulate into something big.

Now, let me tell you about my friend, Sarah. She wanted to run a marathon but wasn’t exactly the fittest person around. At first, the goal seemed impossible. But instead of focusing on the full 26.2 miles, she started with tiny steps. Literally. She ran for one minute a day, then two, then three. Some days were tough—she’d rather stay in bed—but she kept at it. Slowly but surely, those small steps added up, and a year later, she crossed the marathon finish line.

Think about your own life. Imagine you want to learn a new skill, like playing the guitar. You can't just pick it up and expect to be Jimi Hendrix overnight. You’ve got to practice daily, even when you don’t feel like it. Skip a day here and there, and it’s no big deal. But skip a few days, then a week, then a month, and suddenly your guitar is gathering dust in the corner.

In the end, it’s all about consistency and mindfulness. Pay attention to those small choices. They seem insignificant on their own, but they’re the building blocks of either success or failure. So next time you’re tempted to make a tiny compromise, remember—it’s the little things that count the most.