Shane Parrish

So what does fail fast really mean?

Not what you think.

Nike isn't celebrating failure.

He desperately does not want to fail.

You feel it on every page of his memoir.

Throughout a lot of the book, he's holding himself together with positive affirmations he doesn't fully believe, coaching himself through one crisis to the next.

But he does something the Stoics would recognize.

He thinks about the worst case.

The reason you do this isn't about pessimism.

It's about changing your relationship with fear.

Listen to how he does this.

If Blue Ribbon, which is the precursor to Nike, went bust, I'd have no money and I'd be crushed.

But I'd also have some valuable wisdom, which I could apply to the next business.

Wisdom seemed an intangible asset, but an asset all the same, one that justified the risk.

He imagines the worst outcome, thinks about it, and says he'd be okay.

In fact, if it happened, it would just be tuition.

Fear is the real enemy.

Fear is the thing that stops you from getting where you want to go.

It clouds your judgment at the exact moment you need clarity most.

Knight nails this later in the book when he says, when you see only problems, you're not seeing clearly.