I want to be more like a cornerback

What's the most mentally difficult position in sports to play? I think most people would say quarterback or offensive line, and baseball apologists might say pitcher or catcher. Here's a different thought for you: cornerback. The corner is out there on their proverbial island with the receiver. It's just them and the receiver, who is usually equally as fast and several inches taller...and oh yeah, the receiver actually knows where he's going. The cornerback has to be completely reactive.



All of the challenges of the cornerback position lead to one thing: a lot of failure. Even the best of the best - Champ Bailey, DeAngelo Hall, and Chris McAlister - are constantly beaten. Several times each game they fail, and each time they usually are completely alone in that failure. There's no one else to blame but themselves. Being a great corner has a lot to do with being freakishly fast and very intelligent, but it has a lot more to do with being able to rapidly learn from failure and then forget about it.

If Champ Bailey gets burned for a touchdown by Randy Moss on the opening drive, he's got to figure out what went wrong and then forget about it FAST, because he's likely going to get thrown at again 5 minutes later, and if he lets his previous failure creep into his mind he's going to fail again.

As an entrepreneur, I want to get better at that - failing, learning, and recovering. We all know that if you're not failing, you're not trying. But the more frequently you fail, the more frequently you learn. Problem is, if you don't know how to handle failure like an NFL corner, you'll focus more on the depression of failing and less on how the lesson learned is going to help you succeed in the future.