The $50,000 Lesson That Changed Everything

Three years ago, I lost fifty grand on a business venture that crashed and burned spectacularly.

And you know what? Best money I ever spent.

Sounds crazy, right? Stick with me here.

The Failure Myth That's Keeping You Stuck

We've been sold this massive lie about failure. Society treats it like some kind of terminal disease—something to avoid at all costs, hide when it happens, and definitely never talk about at dinner parties.

But here's the thing that Navy SEAL veteran Ray "Cash" Care gets absolutely right: failure doesn't actually exist.

Now before you roll your eyes and click away thinking this is some toxic positivity bullshit, hear me out. Because this isn't about pretending everything's rainbows and unicorns when your world's falling apart.

This is about understanding what's really happening when things don't go according to plan.

What We Call "Failure" Is Just Expensive Education

Every time something doesn't work out the way you expected, you're not failing. You're paying tuition to the University of Real Life.

And honestly? It's got the best curriculum on the planet.

Think about it. When you were learning to walk as a kid, did you "fail" every time you fell down? Hell no. You were gathering data. Each stumble taught your brain something new about balance, momentum, and coordination.

But somewhere along the way, we decided that adults aren't allowed to learn through trial and error anymore. We're supposed to get everything right on the first try, or we're failures.

That's insane.

The Success Equation Nobody Talks About

Here's what successful people actually do (and what Ray Care figured out during his SEAL training):

Attempts + Learning + Persistence = Eventual Success

Notice what's NOT in that equation? Getting it right the first time.

The people who seem "naturally gifted" or "lucky"? They're just really good at failing fast, learning quickly, and trying again with better information.

My $50,000 education taught me more about business, resilience, and myself than any MBA program ever could. I learned:

• How to spot red flags in partnerships
• The importance of cash flow management (the hard way)
• That my self-worth isn't tied to my net worth
• How to bounce back from rock bottom
• Which friends actually have your back when things get rough

You can't put a price on that kind of knowledge. Well, actually you can. It was fifty grand. And I'd pay it again.

Real Talk: The Stories We Don't Hear

You know why we think failure is so devastating? Because successful people are terrible at sharing their real stories.

Everyone loves to talk about their wins. But the messy middle? The part where they almost gave up seventeen times? The nights they cried in their car? That stuff gets edited out of the highlight reel.

Sara Blakely cut the feet off her pantyhose and tried to sell the idea to hosiery companies for TWO YEARS before anyone would listen. She got rejected so many times she stopped counting.

Walt Disney was fired from a newspaper for "lacking imagination and having no good ideas." His first animation company went bankrupt.

Oprah was fired from her first television job for being "unfit for television news."

Were these failures? Or were they all just collecting the expensive education they needed to become who they were meant to be?

The Reframe That Changes Everything

Here's the mental shift that'll change your life:

Stop asking "What if I fail?"

Start asking "What am I going to learn?"

When you reframe setbacks as education instead of failure, everything changes. Suddenly you're not a failure—you're a student. And students are supposed to make mistakes. That's literally how learning works.

This doesn't mean you should be reckless or stop trying to succeed. It means you should stop being paralyzed by the possibility of things not going perfectly.

Your Assignment (If You're Brave Enough)

Here's what I want you to do right now:

Think of your biggest "failure" from the past year. You know, that thing that still makes you cringe when you think about it.

Now write down three things you learned from that experience. Not the lessons you think you should have learned, but the actual valuable insights you gained.

I guarantee you'll realize that "failure" was actually expensive education in disguise.

The Plot Twist

Want to know something wild? The business I "failed" at three years ago? The lessons from that experience directly led to the coaching practice I run now. The practice that's more fulfilling and profitable than anything I've ever done.

That $50,000 wasn't the cost of failure. It was the price of admission to the life I actually wanted.

Stop Waiting for Permission to Mess Up

Here's the truth nobody wants to tell you: You're going to mess up anyway. You're human. It's literally unavoidable.

So you can either spend your life terrified of making mistakes, or you can embrace the fact that those mistakes are just expensive education that's going to make you unstoppable.

The choice is yours.

But if you keep waiting until you're guaranteed not to fail, you'll be waiting forever. And that? That's the only real failure there is.

What expensive education are you avoiding right now? Drop a comment and tell me about a time when your "failure" actually turned out to be exactly what you needed. Let's normalize the messy, imperfect, beautiful process of learning through living.

And if this resonated with you, share it with someone who needs permission to mess up spectacularly and learn something amazing in the process.