#372: What Michael Jordan’s Inspirational Story Can Teach You About Resilience & Overcoming Failure

Kevin Lowe: It's all inside of today's 372nd episode of Grit, Grace, and Inspiration.

Kevin Lowe: Hey, I'm your host, Kevin Lowe, and you are listening to Grit, Grace, and Inspiration.

Kevin Lowe: What we're talking about today, it's not about you living life without failure.

Kevin Lowe: No, because failing is just part of life.

Kevin Lowe: Instead, what today is about is about reframing failure, looking at failures from a different view.

Kevin Lowe: And ultimately, I want you to begin to start learning fast, thinking differently, ultimately turning setbacks into epic comebacks.

Kevin Lowe: Because, my friend, failure is temporary. There's always time on the other side to course correct, to learn from your quote-unquote mistake, your quote-unquote failure, and turn it around for something good in your life.

Kevin Lowe: And if you want a real-life example of what I'm talking about, who better to illustrate this idea than the one and only Michael Jordan?

Kevin Lowe: Because did you know as a sophomore in high school, Jordan didn't make the varsity team?

Kevin Lowe: Knowing the man that we know, it's hard to believe. We would think that, wow, he just was born with massive talent, was extremely talented from the get-go.

Kevin Lowe: But no, he realized he had to put in the work.

Kevin Lowe: But what's powerful about this story is that Jordan used this quote-unquote failure to fuel his success.

Kevin Lowe: He let that light a fire in him.

Kevin Lowe: And we all know the basketball player that Michael Jordan came to be.

Kevin Lowe: And you have to wonder, would that ever have happened if he had not failed?

Kevin Lowe: What would have happened if he did make the varsity team as just a sophomore?

Kevin Lowe: Would he have gained the worth ethic that it took to become one of the greatest of all time?

Kevin Lowe: Who only knows? But I have to believe with the way the story went, that it all played an important role.

Kevin Lowe: That failure reframed into success.

Kevin Lowe: And that is exactly what I want for you.

Kevin Lowe: So as we continue, which I'm going to have another real life example for you that hits home close to me is, well, I want you to realize that failure, it's part of the journey. Failure is part of success.

Kevin Lowe: And that is because each time that something goes wrong, each time that we fail, it gives us an opportunity to learn, to grow, to sharpen our sword a little bit more.

Kevin Lowe: It helps us to become better at whatever it is that we're doing.

Kevin Lowe: If you never drop a path, then you're never going to learn how to catch it better.

Kevin Lowe: If you never fall off of the bicycle, well, chances are you're never going to be very good at riding it.

Kevin Lowe: If you never fall, if you never stumble, then my friend, I'm telling you, you're not going to become the best that you can be.

Kevin Lowe: And that is the truth with all of life's quote unquote failures.

Kevin Lowe: Years, whether it's a failed relationship, whether it is a failed career, you were fired, you quit, you gave up on it.

Kevin Lowe: All of it, my friend, you may think of it as a negative, but if you begin to see life from a little bit different view, if you hopefully begin to see life through my eyes, then you begin to see the good even in the midst of the bad.

Kevin Lowe: And the best way for us to do this is for us to reframe, to redefine failure.

Kevin Lowe: What I want you to do is to begin to see failure as a plot twist.

Kevin Lowe: And the reason I chose the term plot twist is because that's exactly what they are. It's not a failure. It's not an ending.

Kevin Lowe: It's a twist in the plot. It's nothing more than an unexpected turn in your story that's going to lead you maybe in a different direction.

Kevin Lowe: It's going to have you getting on course where you're truly meant to be.

Kevin Lowe: Because, my friend, I believe fully that life is not happening to us, but rather life is happening for us.

Kevin Lowe: And each failure, each thing that doesn't go right, well, I have to believe that it's all for a reason because it's just trying to direct you to where you're meant to be.

Kevin Lowe: So what I want you to gain is the idea that as you go through life and as things go wrong, everything goes sideways, you fail.

Kevin Lowe: I hope that you begin to slow down.

Kevin Lowe: When things go wrong, I want you to just take a pause.

Kevin Lowe: Whether it's right then or it's later that night when you're laying in bed, and all you can think about is what you did wrong, how you failed today.

Kevin Lowe: Instead, I want you to begin to look at it from a different angle.

Kevin Lowe: I want you to ask, what is the lesson here? What can I gain from this?

Kevin Lowe: What can I take away? How can I grow?

Kevin Lowe: Why did this happen for me? Not why did this happen to me But the important question to answer Is why did this happen for me.

Kevin Lowe: When you begin to look at the challenges, the failures in this way, you begin to see opportunities hidden inside of them.

Kevin Lowe: Again, as I said, the theme here is life happening for you, not to you.

Kevin Lowe: And I'm even talking about the bad stuff.

Kevin Lowe: As I mentioned, I have another example for you. Something that is close to home.

Kevin Lowe: Failure is not the end. Instead, it's just a twist in the plot.

Kevin Lowe: In spring of 2020, so many of us, the entire world, had our lives completely turned upside down.

Kevin Lowe: And the fact is, well, I was just the same.

Kevin Lowe: I had been a travel agent for the previous seven years, building a brand, building a company, designing luxurious honeymoons for my couples who I worked with, to planning big cruises for churches.

Kevin Lowe: I did all of that for seven years. And of course, as you would expect, 2020 was going to be my best year ever.

Kevin Lowe: I had so many trips on the books, had so many more prospects in the channel to be booked. It was going to be an incredible year for my business.

Kevin Lowe: And then, of course, March of 2020 came, and we all know the story.

Kevin Lowe: The world shut down. The pandemic was running wild.

Kevin Lowe: And in essence, for a travel business, everything ended.

Kevin Lowe: Every trip I had on the books was canceled.

Kevin Lowe: Every idea or plan I had for how this year was going to go was crushed.

Kevin Lowe: Now, here's the takeaway. Is that sometimes you have to have a door shut in order for you to find a new door to open.

Kevin Lowe: For myself, I would never be here. I would never be talking to you here on this podcast if it wasn't for that twist in the plot.

Kevin Lowe: If I had never had everything wrecked and my travel agency completely destroyed, I never would have started this podcast.

Kevin Lowe: Because there we were in the height of the pandemic, locked away in quarantine, and I found the time to invest in this new idea of starting a podcast.

Kevin Lowe: Now, what I didn't know was where that podcast would go.

Kevin Lowe: I honestly, I still thought I was going to be a travel agent.

Kevin Lowe: It wasn't until I started the podcast, until I actually opened the new door and walked through it, that I discovered a whole new world and a whole new part of myself, a whole new dream that I didn't even know existed until I had the courage to open the door, to walk through it, to discover what might be lying on the other side.

Kevin Lowe: And here's the thing. Starting a podcast has been the greatest thing that has ever happened in my life.

Kevin Lowe: When I went blind back in 2003, my life as I knew it was destroyed.

Kevin Lowe: Everything I loved was taken from me. And to be honest, I didn't understand why this would have to happen to me.

Kevin Lowe: Why would God make me blind? Why would he take away the very idea of being able to see myself in the mirror, to be able to see the faces of my loved ones?

Kevin Lowe: And yet, even something as traumatic as that, it was a plot twist.

Kevin Lowe: It was up to me to be able to find good in it.

Kevin Lowe: And starting a podcast, my goodness, did it help me to discover another amazing blessing in it all.

Kevin Lowe: I am able to be here today, bringing you the insights that I've gained, the lessons I've learned over experienced tremendous loss. but also then taking a failure and, epic plot twist and turning it into something good.

Kevin Lowe: Because my friend, I am here to tell you that if I can find good out of becoming blind, if I can find good out of having a business I had created, had built, had poured my life and soul into for seven years, if I can find good in all of that, then my friend, I encourage you that you can do the same.

Kevin Lowe: I'm not saying that it's easy. I'm not saying that my situation was any tougher than yours.

Kevin Lowe: No, I don't doubt that you have more going on in your life than I ever have.

Kevin Lowe: But I'm here to tell you that if I can do it, if I can find good and the bad in my situation, then I promise that you can too.

Kevin Lowe: Now, to help you along this way of trying to find the good and the bad to reframe failure, it starts when failure happens.

Kevin Lowe: I mentioned earlier, when a situation goes awry, instead of you immediately breaking down, spiraling into that horrible thing of why me?

Kevin Lowe: What if? What could I have done better?

Kevin Lowe: Instead, I want you to just pause and begin to reframe it.

Kevin Lowe: Again, asking yourself that powerful question. Why did this happen for me?

Kevin Lowe: Not why did this happen to me, but why did this happen for me?

Kevin Lowe: What am I supposed to learn from it? Why did this happen?

Kevin Lowe: What am I supposed to gain from it? Because I guarantee you there is something hidden inside of this failure that is meant for you.

Kevin Lowe: My second step is for you to begin to look for new doors.

Kevin Lowe: Find a door that's maybe already slightly open. It's begging you to give it a try. Why?

Kevin Lowe: Because when failure happens, it gives us a chance to try something new, to try a different door, as long as you have the courage to push it open.

Kevin Lowe: This is your opportunity, is when failure happens, it's your opportunity to try something new.

Kevin Lowe: And my third tip for you is when this does happen, and like I said, failures are epic and they're also just minor. They're little things throughout the day. We all experience them.

Kevin Lowe: But what I want you to do is look back and see how you have overcome, how you have grown.

Kevin Lowe: Maybe you didn't even realize it at the time, but you were already adapting and overcoming.

Kevin Lowe: You were already reframing your failure without even realizing it.

Kevin Lowe: So I encourage you to look back on life, to look back at what you've learned from the mistakes you've made.

Kevin Lowe: I encourage you to see, huh, maybe Kevin is right.

Kevin Lowe: Maybe all those things that I viewed as a negative, which, yeah, it doesn't mean that they were positive, but I did learn from them.

Kevin Lowe: I have become a better version of me because of them.

Kevin Lowe: I encourage you to spend the time to reflect, to think back, because I guarantee you, my friend, it's going to help you as you continue on with life, when you experience more ups and downs, when you have more failures.

Kevin Lowe: So my friend, as I wrap up today's episode, I want to remind you, maybe another way to look at failures is the stepping stones.

Kevin Lowe: Each stepping stone you walk on is another failure, another mistake.

Kevin Lowe: Another thing that, gosh, we all wish didn't happen, but it did and it's part of life and that's okay because it's getting you to where you're meant to be.

Kevin Lowe: It's a stepping stone leading you to exactly where you are meant to be, my friend.

Kevin Lowe: This is for you. Life is happening for you, not to you.

Kevin Lowe: So let me end with this, my friend. The things that we view as negative, there's actually a positive hidden inside.

Kevin Lowe: Each fall that we have, well, there is a reason for it.

Kevin Lowe: And there is something that we can learn from it and we can take away and we can grow bigger because of it.

Kevin Lowe: My friend, as I have said multiple times in today's episode, everything in life, even the bad stuff, it's happening for you, not to you.

Kevin Lowe: So with that mindset, I encourage you to begin to look at things from a different view, reframing your failures into success.

Kevin Lowe: Until next time, my friend, I'm your host, Kevin Lowe.

Kevin Lowe: And this, of course, was another episode of Grit, Grace, and Inspiration.

Kevin Lowe: If today's episode resonated with you, made you think of somebody, it would mean the world to me if you would share today's episode with that friend, with that person, with somebody who you think, man, they could really benefit from hearing what Kevin has to share.

Kevin Lowe: And with that said, I'm out of here. I will see you in our next episode.