What would you attempt if you knew without doubt that you would not fail?

Michael Markham is a remarkable man. Abandoned by his mother and brought up in Barnardo’s home, he was fostered by a family he didn’t like and became disruptive, ending up in Borstal and finally given the option of joining the army or going to prison.

Some years later when he was faced with accepting that he would be out of work because the company he worked for was bankrupt, he alone of all the employees decided to save the business. When I asked him what made him think he could buy and run a company he told me that it wasn’t so much a belief that he could do it as a lack of fear about what would happen if he didn’t. He has experienced having nothing and survived.

So, as he wasn’t afraid of failing, he just went ahead and did it. He turned Stanair Industrial Doors into a multi-million pound enterprise and along the way, learned what he needed to learn to make it work at each stage of development.

Why do so many people wait until they face ruin before they decide to become successful? Maybe it’s because when they have nothing to lose, as in Michael’s case, the fear of failure is no longer significant. “I can’t” becomes “I will” and the belief is strong enough.

What would you attempt if you absolutely knew you couldn’t fail?