When people fail—myself included—it’s easy to start believing we weren’t meant for that path, or maybe we just weren’t cut out for it.

We get caught in this loop of self-defeating behavior that constantly berates us on how we aren’t meant to win. And so, we move onto the next thing hoping we can do better there.

But sometimes, maybe we fail not because we can’t do it. But because we’re just early?

That’s at least how Jon Hamm looked at it.

Before he became Don Draper on Mad Men, he was a new actor barely getting by in Los Angeles. For years, he faced constant rejection and lived paycheck to paycheck. Eventually, he was diagnosed with depression and began to think he had failed at being an actor.

But before he quit for good, he decided to give therapy a try. And at one session he started pouring out how frustrated he was at the acting industry and how hard it was to get a job and how everyone seemed to be against him.

Eventually, Jon said to his therapist, “I think I’ve failed.”

Then his therapist said something that would stick with him forever:

“You’re not failing. You’re just early.”

That single line changed everything from him. It was at that moment he found out that timing matters and if you want to win at something, you just have to keep working until the timing is right. It all comes down to persistence.

And so, he left that session with the will and the determination to keep trying, to keep acting, and to keep working until he got his big break.

A few years later, after nearly a decade of low-paying acting gigs, Jon finally landed the role that put him on the map. His role in Mad Men would go on to earn him nearly $275,000 per episode and get follow-up roles in movies like Baby Driver, Bridesmaids, and The Town.

In interviews, he constantly refers back to that single line his therapist told him all those years ago because he knows there’s possibly someone out there who could use the same advice that made him push a little farther.

Whether you’re failing now in something or next time you do—and you will—remember that failing doesn’t necessarily mean you weren’t cut out to do whatever it is you set out to do. It might just mean you’re a little early.

Until next time,
Isaiah Taylor

Dive Deeper

What I’m Currently Reading - I’m still in the middle of reading Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. A book on the science behind success and how our environment plays in role in how we win.

Quote Of The Week - “Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten.” — Bill Gates