Boxing

Just a couple days ago, I began reading the biography on Steve Jobs.  He was a very interesting man who changed the technology industry forever, so I was hoping to glean a little bit of knowledge from the 600+ pages that it contains.

One quote by Jobs shocked me within one of the first few pages.  In it, he made the statement that he believes all business people should have a major failure in their life.

Yes.  They must get sucker punched; take one to the chin. 

It shocked me at first. Isn't that what you are trying to avoid? As I thought about it more though it makes sense.  It focuses your drive and teaches you many things like how to get back up, what to do instead the next time etc. 

Not EVERYONE needs to fail, but if you look at some of the greatest athletes, presidents, and business people of all time you'd be surprised how many of them failed.