Grace

Proverbs 24:16 tells us, “Though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again.”As someone who’s fallen and risen again at least seven times in life, I can relate to that passage. I’ve had my share of failures.But I look at failure as a learning experience. If you learn a billion-dollar lesson from a million-dollar flop, it’s a cheap education. We just have to look at failure as a teacher. I’ve found that life is an adventure and worth the risk.

As a young man, my partner, Jay, and I sold our small business and bought a 38-foot schooner. We dreamed of sailing down the East Coast to Florida, then over to the Caribbean, and finally down to South America. We were filled with dreams, ambition, and a yearning for adventure. Fueled by optimism, we hardly stopped to consider the fact that neither of us had ever sailed a boat. On the early leg of our journey, we got so lost that even the Coast Guard couldn’t find us. But we kept going.

The other problem was that our old boat leaked. But we just kept bailing. Eventually our bailing and pumping and caulking were no longer enough to keep the wooden boat from filling with water. She sank off the coast of Cuba. Fortunately we were rescued by a passing freighter. But we didn’t give up on our adventure. Finding other means of travel including ships, planes and trains, we continued our trip through the Caribbean and South America all the way down to Chile.

That trip changed my life. Every business venture I’ve been involved in since those days has benefited from the lessons I learned on that once-in-a-lifetime adventure. All of life is a risk. Making friends, starting college, getting married, buying a home, having children, starting a business – all involve a certain amount of risk. If you never take a risk, you never really live.

I don’t believe God blessed us with physical and mental abilities and talents so we could sit on the sidelines and watch the world go by. Pray to God for wisdom, listen for His answer, and have faith that He wants you to fulfill your potential and make the most of the talents with which he has so richly blessed you. Taking a risk means you might fall. But like the man in Proverbs, you’ll rise again.

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Rich DeVos is vice-chairman of Gospel Communications. He is also the author of "Hope From My Heart: Ten Lessons for Life," co-founder of Amway Corp., and owner and chairman of the NBA's Orlando Magic.