Tim Harford Quotes

I didn't fear failure. I expected failure.

Unwillingness to risk failure is always there, but it gets harder when you feel you have more to lose.

Accept that all of us can be hurt, that all of us can and surely will at times fail. Other vulnerabilities, like being embarrassed or risking love, can be terrifying, too. I think we should follow a simple rule: if we can take the worst, take the risk.

We feel a lot of pressure about looking silly or appearing weak, whatever that means, or being a failure. You have to keep in your head: what's the worst that can happen?

There is no comparison between that which is lost by not succeeding and that which is lost by not trying.

Remember your dreams and fight for them. You must know what you want from life. There is just one thing that makes your dream become impossible: the fear of failure.

Successful people have a bigger fear of failure than people who've never done anything because if you haven't been successful, then you don't know how it feels to lose it all. You don't have that fear. So why do you think people get stuck in those boxes? It's that fear of going back down.

Most people don't really do too many things because they're afraid they'll fail. There are people failing all the time, all around you. And nobody is going to notice your failure. Your failure is not going to be so spectacular that people write news stories about it. Your failure will be boring.

I've bombed on stage millions and millions of times. And that's part of it. You go up with a half-baked idea, and you bomb, and so what? Nothing bad happens if you bomb.

If you're afraid to fail, then you're probably going to fail.

One of the reasons people stop learning is that they become less and less willing to risk failure.

The greatest mistake you can make in life is continually fearing that you'll make one.

In school, we learn that mistakes translate into bad grades. This unfortunate lesson gets burned into our brains, and we go through life shunning challenges that might end in failure.

A lot of people simply don't realize their potential because they're just so risk adverse. They just don't want to take the risk.

Whenever there's a role that scares me, I get panicked and nervous. I know that greatness might come because I'm going to get out of my own element and comfort zone.

I am far more comfortable with failure than I ever will be with success.

It might be scary because you're taking a risk, but at the end of the day you can say you tried.

Failure seldom stops you. What stops you is the fear of failure.

Half the things that people do not succeed in are through fear of making the attempt.

I think my whole life, because of where I came from, I had a fear of failure.

True success is overcoming the fear of being unsuccessful.

Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out.

Without exposure to potential failure, there is no risk.

We need some great failures. Especially we ever-successful Americans - conscious, intelligent, illuminating failures.

It's your own fear of failure that stops you from doing things.