On this episode of The Daily Mastermind, George Wright III shares a commencement address delivered by Denzel Washington at the University of Pennsylvania. The speech centers on a deceptively simple idea: if you are not failing, you are not even trying. George introduces it because he believes too many people hold back, keep backup plans in their pocket, and never fully commit to what matters most to them.
This is not a feel-good platitude. It is a framework for how to live, how to pursue your potential, and how to stop letting fear of failure keep you from taking the risks that actually move your life forward.
Why "Something to Fall Back On" Is the Wrong Advice
Most of us grew up hearing some version of it: make sure you have something to fall back on. Parents said it. Counselors said it. It sounds responsible. But as Denzel Washington points out, that advice quietly teaches you to hedge your bets against your own dreams.
"I never understood that concept, having something to fall back on. If I'm going to fall, I don't want to fall back on anything except my faith. I want to fall forward."
Falling forward means choosing direction over safety. It means accepting that you will stumble, and deciding in advance that when you do, you will at least be moving toward something. That orientation changes everything.
The Math of Failure Most People Get Wrong
Reggie Jackson struck out 2,600 times in his career. Thomas Edison ran 1,000 failed experiments before the light bulb. Nobody remembers the strikeouts. Nobody talks about the failed experiments. What gets remembered are the home runs and the invention that lit up the world.
Those numbers are not discouraging; they are liberating. They tell you that failure is not a sign you are on the wrong path. It is proof you are on the path at all. Every failed attempt is one step closer. The question is not whether you will fail. The question is whether you will keep going after you do.
Denzel's Audition Story: Staying in the Room
Washington tells a story about early in his career, auditioning for a Broadway musical despite not being able to sing. He went out there anyway, sang badly, and did not get the part. But he did not quit. He walked out of the audition to prepare for the next one, and the one after that.
Thirty years later, he won the Tony Award for a play called Fences. It was performed at the same theater where he had bombed that first audition.
"There's an old saying. You hang around the barbershop long enough, sooner or later you're going to get a haircut. So you will catch a break."
Staying in the game, continuing to show up and prepare and try, is what eventually closes the gap between where you are and where you are capable of going.
The Ghosts of Unfulfilled Potential
One of the most striking images from this address involves the moment of death. Motivational speaker Les Brown describes a deathbed scene where the ghosts of your unfulfilled potential gather around you. These are the ideas you never acted on, the talents you never used, the risks you never took. They are angry. They say: we came to you, and now we go to the grave together.
It is a confronting image, and an honest one. The goal is not to live without regret in the shallow sense of trying everything once. It is to honor the gifts and potential you were given by actually putting them to work.
"If you don't fail, you're not even trying."
What You Do with What You Have
Washington closes his address with a question that applies to everyone regardless of background, resources, or circumstance: what are you going to do with what you have? Some people have money. Some have patience. Some have kindness. Some have a relentless work ethic. Whatever the gift, it is meant to be used.
You cannot take it with you. You will never see a U-Haul behind a hearse. The accumulation of comfort, the preservation of safety, the avoidance of risk: none of it goes with you. What you do with your gifts, for yourself and for others, is the only thing that lasts.
Action Steps
- Identify one goal you have been protecting with a backup plan and decide to go all in on it instead.
- Write down a recent failure and name one concrete thing you learned or gained from it.
- Stop measuring progress by avoiding mistakes. Start measuring it by how many times you tried something hard.
- Ask yourself honestly: what would the ghosts around your deathbed say? Let that question guide your next decision.
- Fall forward. Choose a direction, take the risk, and trust that each stumble moves you closer.
Failure is not something to manage around. It is something to move through, repeatedly, on your way to the life you are capable of living. As George Wright III often says, it is never too late to start living the life you were meant to live.