"I’ve lost almost 300 games. I’ve missed more than 9000 shots. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and I’ve missed."

Guess who said that … (I’ll tell you a little bit later.)

Starting a new career is not easy.

Starting something from scratch. It’s even harder.

You may miss the shot sometimes. You may feel like you're losing the game.  

For some time, we've been preparing the ABAP Spirit Coaching Program with Ladislav for you and I was asking him a lot of questions about goals, outcome, technical details, prerequisites about the upcoming program (more about it in the next week).

I didn’t skip questions about doubts (what if ...) …

… and I want to share with you a short passage from our conversation.

It's a reaction to my question:

• WHAT IF I realize that it’s too hard for me?
• WHAT IF I get stuck?
• WHAT IF I don’t know what else I should do to finish the project?
• WHAT IF I will not enjoy it?

His 90-seconds reaction

Yes, we don’t want to lie to you. You’re going to fail.

Sooner or later, it’ll happen.

But I had another reason for sharing this 90-seconds passage from our more than 1-hour call.

One thing is hidden in Ladislav’s words and you might overlook it.

How does your FAILURE look?

Is it like this?:

===
You get stuck and you struggle to find errors and then you decide "Screw it! I don’t KNOW".

The End.

In better cases, you’ll try something else. In worse cases, you’ll return to your previous unfulfilling job.
===

This is a destructive failing.

Why?

Because it can be one simple detail (like Ladislav said) and emotion can radically change.

And that’s our part of the job. Spotting this detail is something that we called - Controlled Failing.

Our ABAP developers will not show you what is missing in your code. They are only asking you questions and leading you to see light under the lamp.

Did you remember the quote from the beginning?

"26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and I’ve missed."

And he continued:

"I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."

     - Micheal Jordan, the greatest basketball player of all time.

 

You need to take a shot to win the game. 25 times, Micheal didn’t miss.

(this is probably Micheal's the most famous buzzer shot)

NBA Moment - 1989

I’m looking forward to the exciting final week of ABAP Spirit

See you there,
Tom