Erik Qualman and the Art of Modern Pioneering

Failing Forward

Erik Qualman is the digital Dale Carnegie of our time. He’s a bestselling, Pulitzer Prize nominated author who ranks #2 (just behind JK Rowling) in global likeability and his work on Socialnomics has been featured on 60 Minutes to the Wall Street Journal and used by the National Guard to NASA. He even holds a sitting professorship at Harvard and MIT’s edX labs.

It’s clear Erik has achieved great success in his profession but the path was not a simple one. From being diagnosed with cancer to losing his life savings to a Ponzi scheme, he has overcome numerous obstacles in his life. Many of them could have easily derailed everything but didn’t due in large part to his approach to living life and learning from failure.

Listen in as we discuss bouncing back from rock bottom, the best time to start a business, and his STAMP habits to success.

In This Episode

• Why loving what you do makes failure more rewarding
• The five habits everybody can practice to achieve their best life
• How multi-tasking leads to no-tasking
• Why starting your business successfully means starting today, even if you think you’re not ready
• Why pushback means you’re on the right path

Quotes From This Episode

“You’ve got to love what you do because the money could all go away in an instant.” —@equalman

“Most people just want to be motivated to achieve their best success and happiness.” —@equalman

“We are trying to beat father time even though father time is undefeatable.” —@equalman

“Take three minutes a day to go out and shine the light on somebody else.” —@equalman

[tweet ““Don’t say ‘let’s get ready’. Say ‘let’s get started.’” —@equalman”]

“The best time to start your business is yesterday; the second best time is today.” —@equalman

“Failure is part of the process but you need to evaluate your failure properly. Fail fast. Fail better. Fail forward.” —@equalman

“Pioneers get pushback so if you’re not getting pushback, you should be concerned. If you are getting pushback, instead of getting frustrated, understand that you are pioneering and of course people aren’t going to get it right away.” —@equalman

[tweet ““You don’t use old maps to get to new destinations.” —@equalman”]

Resources

• Erik Qualman on Twitter: @equalman
• Equalman
• Tim Ferris and the Four Hour Work Week
• Social Media Revolution
• Duolingo
• Give and Take