"By failing to prepare, you're preparing to fail."

Recently I’ve been really curious about Benjamin Franklin’s philosophies. As one of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America, his commentary on the fundamentals of life are timeless. One of his quotes that you’ve probably heard before is "By failing to prepare, you're preparing to fail."

This came to mind over the weekend. Not getting political, I had a conversation with a young woman who knocked on my door wanting to talk about a candidate that’s running for office this election cycle. Wanting to reward her for the courage she had to knock on strangers doors, my intention was to make this the best conversation she had all day.

Rather than listening to her script and sending her on her way, I wanted to ask her questions and give her a real opportunity to advocate

First I asked, “What’s your favorite part about this candidate’s position and what they hope to do for the community?” She didn’t really have an answer. Then I asked “Who are they running against?” and she didn’t know the opposition’s name, but in a fluster she shared some details about this candidate that I later found were misinformed. Clearly she was underprepared and in terms of her intention to persuade me to vote for her candidate, she failed.

But I’ll bet that the second she got out of eyesight, the first thing she did was Google who the opposing candidate is. And I bet she reflected a bit on why this is important to her, and reconnected with her reasons for investing her weekend talking to strangers about politics.

I don’t judge her. I’m proud of her! She’s in it! She’s learning! By putting herself out there and exposing herself to failure, she gained an awareness of her weaknesses and knows the areas she needs to be more prepared for. There’s no faster teacher than lived experience!

Beyond complimenting her on her courage to knock door to door, I wish I would’ve asked her if she has her own aspirations to get involved in politics. To have learned more about her rather than who she was speaking on behalf of.

But that’s okay! Lesson learned on my end - Now I’m more prepared to make the most of the next conversation I have with a stranger who knocks on my door!