Failure™ Magazine

Dave Ramsey

The Failure Interview.

Written by Jason Zasky   Filed under Business, Life

What is your greatest failure?
Immaturity. I built a house of cards with it. I built a pretty good-sized real estate empire for a little guy in middle class America, and ended up losing it all because I had so much debt and so much short-term debt I thought I was invincible. It was that sense of immaturity and sense of the Midas touch. I thought that nothing bad could ever happen to me—I’m too smart. So a little bit of immaturity mixed with a touch of arrogance [laughs].

I’m struck by how you got your break in radio—you offered to work for free for a month. Is that where most people would have been stopped because of an inability to take a risk?
I think sometimes people are unwilling to try something. When you get the wind knocked out of you it’s a little tough to go run back out there and do it again. But that was a fairly small risk because I really wasn’t looking for that to be my job. It was just something fun to do and if I could help people it would be great. All of a sudden the thing takes off and Boom!, on the New York Times best-seller list. And that turned into a big deal and of course it has become a big operation with a multi-million dollar income coming into this place and going back out. So it turns out I was a genius, Ha! Ha! Ha! A little luck and a little God was mixed in there.

On a related note, my favorite part of “How to Have More Than Enough” is the elephant story, where the pragmatist realizes that the only thing holding her back in life is fear.
Isn’t that great? I wish I had written that. I referenced the pastor I stole it from. That one brings tears to my eyes every time.

Is fear what holds most people back from taking action?
Without a doubt fear drives you to mediocrity. Fear keeps you at a job you hate. Fear keeps you from going and living your dreams.
       

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