June 14, 2025 • 10 mins
In this raw and reflective episode, Brother ha2tim takes us deep into the woods—literally and metaphorically—to unpack the vital role failure plays in personal and communal growth. From childhood lessons to hard-earned wisdom, he makes a powerful case for why we must reclaim failure as a human necessity, especially for our youth. This one’s for the builders, the teachers, and the brave ones who try.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Oh Man family, family, family. Peace to you and to
all those who are around you and those of you
that are tuning in. Thank you for listening. Man's brother Tim.
No frills, no thrills, just me shit, Man, listen. I
(00:22):
am not in Ghana. I'm here. I was planning to
be so much farther ahead on my recordings, but things
fell through. I am now here in Columbus with many
of you. I am in America with many of you
that listen to me right now. Go back and check
(00:44):
out my the Ghana trip that wasn't so you get
a good idea of what happened. But anyway, Man, when
I wrote this, I was standing in the middle of
Deer Creek, and I know for a fact that should
be somewhere else. Maybe well I know for that right now,
I wouldn't be leaving Kenya, but I would I have
went through Kenya. I would be in Ghana and probably
(01:06):
right now be heading towards Cape Coast, possibly even Kumasi
or maybe even no. I wouldn't be going towards the
Volta region yet. But but needless to say, my wife
is understandably not too happy with me. But I needed this.
(01:29):
I was out here I was out in the woods.
We went to Deer Creek when it when it was
final that we were not gonna be able to travel,
my wife asked for us to have some time away,
so I got us a room at Deer Creek and family.
Let me say this to you, those of you who
(01:49):
might not have a lot of money to travel, but
you have just a little bit and you want to
take your your your people, your family out of town,
but don't have a lot of money to get out
of town, I would suggest using the state parks lodges. Man,
oh Man, Deer Creek was beautiful. Man, Deer Creek was beautiful,
(02:11):
and I'm just gonna leave it at that. So we
needed to get away right, and I got We went
out to Deer Creek and why I was surrounded by
woods on the path I didn't walk before. I wasn't lost,
just in the unfamiliar place. And I'm learning to lean
(02:35):
into that, right being in an unfamiliar place, not being
necessarily lost, or even if I am lost, because sometimes
the unfamiliar is exactly where you find what you didn't
even know you were looking for. And that brings me
to the thought I can't shake something I think is
(02:59):
going to be a recurring theme on the journey, a
recurring thing failure. And let me say it plain, failure
is a human right, needed a title. That's the title
of this. Failure is a human right, not just the right,
(03:20):
it is a necessity. See, I'm part of a culture
right now, hell world that don't treat failure like something natural.
We treat it like some disease, like if you mess up,
you messed up permanently. But the truth is failure gives
(03:43):
us feedback. Now, remember those of you who have been
involved with Jim and you have experienced the book called
Player's Pyramid, we talk about failure being feedback, right, a
necessary feedback so that you know how to make corrections
to move to what and where you want to be. Anyway,
(04:07):
failure gives us feedback. It shows us what the real,
what's real, and what's not. It humbles us, teaches us,
sharpens us. If you're out here chasing something real, a dream,
a purpose you're calling, you will fail. But the lesson
(04:29):
ain't in the fall. It's in what you find on
the way down and who you become when you stand
back up. Real quick, real quick, hold on, check this out. Listen.
You're listening, please go ahead and like, follow and share
(04:51):
the show. I ain't out here trying to go viral.
I'm just trying to go vital. That's do, That's dope.
Keep the truth circulating. Support goes a long way. Family,
All right, let's get back to it now. Let me
get personal. I remember one of the elders from back
(05:13):
of the day, Elder Shad. Right. Elder Shad and I
often go back to this story with y'all used to
tell us, if you know what you want to do,
then fail at it as many times as you can
while you're young. Back then, I and me and the
other Nation Builders that were there thought he was crazy.
(05:34):
Now now I get it. Sometimes you got to live
long enough to get some of your elder's wisdom. Fan,
keep living and you will see right See, in the hood,
you grow up around these cats that talk a big game.
Never lost the fight, never failed the class, never been wrong.
(05:56):
But here's the truth. And listen closely. If you never
lost a fight, you've never really been anyone. If you
never failed the test, you were never really challenged. Some
of the smartest sounding of folks out here just been hiding,
scared to fall, scared to be seen learning. We got
(06:22):
parents in schools protecting kids from the sting of failure,
like it's going to break them, Nah, fam, What's really
breaking them is a world where they never get to
fall and recover. Were scared of hurting their self esteem,
But what about their self awareness? What about their resilience?
(06:46):
Every invention we use today exists because somebody was willing
to fail. Somebody was brave enough to put an idea
out into the world and let it blow up in
their face and then come back and try again. Or
somebody was able to pick up the pieces of their
failure and develop something. Let me raise my glass right now,
(07:11):
as we used to do back in the day when
I did the daily toast. Y'all go back and check
out those shows. I advise it to all the folks
bold enough to try to fail, to learn from the rubble.
As an educator, I see it all the time, people
asking me to put kids out, to give up on them,
(07:34):
and I ask, if I throw them out, where do
they go? These are our kids, They live in our neighborhoods.
Failure shouldn't mean exile, It should mean feedback. It should
mean another chance. Some of these kids that struggle with me,
they go somewhere else and thrive. Why because they failed
(07:55):
enough under my roof to recognize what success really feels
like when it's finally shows up. So salute to all
the educators, pans and mentors out there providing safe spaces
for our kids to mess up without messing up their futures.
Failure is not weakness, Failure is not shame. Failure is human.
(08:18):
And in the world we're trying and excuse me, and
in the world and in the world trying to take
that away from our youth. Being real about it is
revolutionary now and I want to bring this final point.
It is crazy to me that we will provide spaces
(08:41):
where failure is expected, so we prepare our young people.
We don't do that with math, we don't do that
with reading, but we do that shit with basketball and
football and all these other ball chasing sports out here.
We get them practice right so they can fail over
(09:05):
and over again and work that out their system. But
when it comes to this education piece, we don't give
we don't give people the opportunity to really fail. When
it comes to these life things, we don't give them
the space and the practice space so that they can
mess up and get it out their system. And I
(09:26):
don't even think it's getting it out your system, because
I have noticed in my learning pattern, I have to
mess up a few times until my body feels what
I'm doing, until my mind is comfortable with what I'm
doing to where I could block out everything else and
focus on that. But that takes time. That takes having
(09:48):
a teacher that is patient enough with me and walk
me through my failures, you know why. And I'm gonna
say this some of the I'm gonna stop, let me stop.
I'm gonna stop right there. I'm not gonna go. I'm
on script right now because I'm trying to keep it
on script and I'm trying to keep the time down
so and I wanna repeat this. And in a world
(10:11):
trying to take that away from our youth, being real
about it is revolutionary. Failure is a necessity. Failure is
a human right. This brother, I tim no frills, no thrills,
just the truth. And you know what, I'm out
Oh Man family, family, family. Peace to you and to
all those who are around you and those of you
that are tuning in. Thank you for listening. Man's brother Tim.
No frills, no thrills, just me shit, Man, listen. I
(00:22):
am not in Ghana. I'm here. I was planning to
be so much farther ahead on my recordings, but things
fell through. I am now here in Columbus with many
of you. I am in America with many of you
that listen to me right now. Go back and check
(00:44):
out my the Ghana trip that wasn't so you get
a good idea of what happened. But anyway, Man, when
I wrote this, I was standing in the middle of
Deer Creek, and I know for a fact that should
be somewhere else. Maybe well I know for that right now,
I wouldn't be leaving Kenya, but I would I have
went through Kenya. I would be in Ghana and probably
(01:06):
right now be heading towards Cape Coast, possibly even Kumasi
or maybe even no. I wouldn't be going towards the
Volta region yet. But but needless to say, my wife
is understandably not too happy with me. But I needed this.
(01:29):
I was out here I was out in the woods.
We went to Deer Creek when it when it was
final that we were not gonna be able to travel,
my wife asked for us to have some time away,
so I got us a room at Deer Creek and family.
Let me say this to you, those of you who
(01:49):
might not have a lot of money to travel, but
you have just a little bit and you want to
take your your your people, your family out of town,
but don't have a lot of money to get out
of town, I would suggest using the state parks lodges. Man,
oh Man, Deer Creek was beautiful. Man, Deer Creek was beautiful,
(02:11):
and I'm just gonna leave it at that. So we
needed to get away right, and I got We went
out to Deer Creek and why I was surrounded by
woods on the path I didn't walk before. I wasn't lost,
just in the unfamiliar place. And I'm learning to lean
(02:35):
into that, right being in an unfamiliar place, not being
necessarily lost, or even if I am lost, because sometimes
the unfamiliar is exactly where you find what you didn't
even know you were looking for. And that brings me
to the thought I can't shake something I think is
(02:59):
going to be a recurring theme on the journey, a
recurring thing failure. And let me say it plain, failure
is a human right, needed a title. That's the title
of this. Failure is a human right, not just the right,
(03:20):
it is a necessity. See, I'm part of a culture
right now, hell world that don't treat failure like something natural.
We treat it like some disease, like if you mess up,
you messed up permanently. But the truth is failure gives
(03:43):
us feedback. Now, remember those of you who have been
involved with Jim and you have experienced the book called
Player's Pyramid, we talk about failure being feedback, right, a
necessary feedback so that you know how to make corrections
to move to what and where you want to be. Anyway,
(04:07):
failure gives us feedback. It shows us what the real,
what's real, and what's not. It humbles us, teaches us,
sharpens us. If you're out here chasing something real, a dream,
a purpose you're calling, you will fail. But the lesson
(04:29):
ain't in the fall. It's in what you find on
the way down and who you become when you stand
back up. Real quick, real quick, hold on, check this out. Listen.
You're listening, please go ahead and like, follow and share
(04:51):
the show. I ain't out here trying to go viral.
I'm just trying to go vital. That's do, That's dope.
Keep the truth circulating. Support goes a long way. Family,
All right, let's get back to it now. Let me
get personal. I remember one of the elders from back
(05:13):
of the day, Elder Shad. Right. Elder Shad and I
often go back to this story with y'all used to
tell us, if you know what you want to do,
then fail at it as many times as you can
while you're young. Back then, I and me and the
other Nation Builders that were there thought he was crazy.
(05:34):
Now now I get it. Sometimes you got to live
long enough to get some of your elder's wisdom. Fan,
keep living and you will see right See, in the hood,
you grow up around these cats that talk a big game.
Never lost the fight, never failed the class, never been wrong.
(05:56):
But here's the truth. And listen closely. If you never
lost a fight, you've never really been anyone. If you
never failed the test, you were never really challenged. Some
of the smartest sounding of folks out here just been hiding,
scared to fall, scared to be seen learning. We got
(06:22):
parents in schools protecting kids from the sting of failure,
like it's going to break them, Nah, fam, What's really
breaking them is a world where they never get to
fall and recover. Were scared of hurting their self esteem,
But what about their self awareness? What about their resilience?
(06:46):
Every invention we use today exists because somebody was willing
to fail. Somebody was brave enough to put an idea
out into the world and let it blow up in
their face and then come back and try again. Or
somebody was able to pick up the pieces of their
failure and develop something. Let me raise my glass right now,
(07:11):
as we used to do back in the day when
I did the daily toast. Y'all go back and check
out those shows. I advise it to all the folks
bold enough to try to fail, to learn from the rubble.
As an educator, I see it all the time, people
asking me to put kids out, to give up on them,
(07:34):
and I ask, if I throw them out, where do
they go? These are our kids, They live in our neighborhoods.
Failure shouldn't mean exile, It should mean feedback. It should
mean another chance. Some of these kids that struggle with me,
they go somewhere else and thrive. Why because they failed
(07:55):
enough under my roof to recognize what success really feels
like when it's finally shows up. So salute to all
the educators, pans and mentors out there providing safe spaces
for our kids to mess up without messing up their futures.
Failure is not weakness, Failure is not shame. Failure is human.
(08:18):
And in the world we're trying and excuse me, and
in the world and in the world trying to take
that away from our youth. Being real about it is
revolutionary now and I want to bring this final point.
It is crazy to me that we will provide spaces
(08:41):
where failure is expected, so we prepare our young people.
We don't do that with math, we don't do that
with reading, but we do that shit with basketball and
football and all these other ball chasing sports out here.
We get them practice right so they can fail over
(09:05):
and over again and work that out their system. But
when it comes to this education piece, we don't give
we don't give people the opportunity to really fail. When
it comes to these life things, we don't give them
the space and the practice space so that they can
mess up and get it out their system. And I
(09:26):
don't even think it's getting it out your system, because
I have noticed in my learning pattern, I have to
mess up a few times until my body feels what
I'm doing, until my mind is comfortable with what I'm
doing to where I could block out everything else and
focus on that. But that takes time. That takes having
(09:48):
a teacher that is patient enough with me and walk
me through my failures, you know why. And I'm gonna
say this some of the I'm gonna stop, let me stop.
I'm gonna stop right there. I'm not gonna go. I'm
on script right now because I'm trying to keep it
on script and I'm trying to keep the time down
so and I wanna repeat this. And in a world
(10:11):
trying to take that away from our youth, being real
about it is revolutionary. Failure is a necessity. Failure is
a human right. This brother, I tim no frills, no thrills,
just the truth. And you know what, I'm out
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