Cowards don't fail.
Published January 30, 2026 · 11:13 · 58,473 views
About This Video
The title inverts the motivational cliche into something sharper. The coward doesn't fail because the coward doesn't attempt. Failure requires the courage to begin, and Van spends eleven minutes making the case that the sting of failure is infinitely preferable to the slow rot of never having risked anything. Cowardice isn't a feeling. It's a strategy, and the strategy's long-term returns are catastrophic.
The question isn't whether to let your kid ride a motorcycle or whether to cross the Baja Peninsula. It's whether to make the thing you've been avoiding making, say the thing you've been afraid to say, start the project that might not work. The brevity of failure versus the permanence of regret. That's the actual risk calculus. The math is not close.
Transcript
some sort of no. This video is about fixing a shade in a dirt bike, but it's really about the failure [music] cycle. Failure is
quitting a task before it's complete or before it's completed on time. Failing to finish a marathon within your time
goal, for instance, in 2010, I wanted to run a sub4. [music] I didn't. I didn't try again. I won't. I finished the marathon, but not in under four hours.
Incidentally, [music] I was beaten by an amputee and a woman wearing a shirt that said, "I'm 50, a
grandmother, and [music] this is my first marathon." I was 35. I'm never doing it again. Failure. I'm a sub4 marathon failure.
You remember that Michael Jordan ad? I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. Well, he vanquished his failures. [music] I did not.
This piece is disattached from you. Try to open this right now. It does like a weird [music] Fernando had this remote controlled skylight shade. It went off its tracks.
Could [music] I fix it? So, the orange is what's missing from [music] this piece, the broken piece. And I can't fix
all that. All those little channels and everything are really important. And yes, I could do 3D [music] printing, but what's the point of that?
I that's just another computer. Why was I willing to fail? Because my objective was to make an [music] interesting video, not to fix a shade. Fernando gave
me permission to fail. Replacing the shade was a matter simply of money. And failure is data. I learned about
electric skylight shades. Got to sync the remote yourself, so I don't want one.
And there's probably like an app that goes with it.
I'd written these failure stories, but it's it's too much. So, I'm just going to tell you about one. This one's kind
of stings, but it wasn't important to be a success.
I failed to complete the DAR rally or even enter it.
After the HBO show, I felt like I was capable of [music] doing anything and I wanted to enter and complete the DAR
rally. They let amateurs compete [music] with the pros. Why did I fail? Come on.
I only had started riding shifter bikes when I was 30 and I was about [music] 35 at the time. I had almost no dirt bike
experience. I was on drugs [music] and booze all the time, but not while I was riding motorcycles. I was delusional.
The [music] Dar Rally is the most difficult race in motorsport and you need about 200 grand [music] to compete.
14 stages, 5,000 miles through the sand. That's like Los Angeles to New York to Florida, [music] back to New York.
Insanely difficult terrain. What did I [music] learn? I learned that I'm capable of doing only one thing at a time [music] with complete focus. I
wasn't focused on training for Dakar. I was focused on making videos.
One must dedicate his life to such endeavors. But I still think I could have done it if I had had the money and
the time. And it stings because I'm just too old now to do daar, which is not to say it's impossible for me to do it.
It's just too late in my mind to try. Wouldn't be fair to my family. But maybe if I was set for life rich.
Is that it? Yeah. No way. So, my son's been riding his new dirt bike for about a month, and I haven't been filming him because the learning is
so brutal. bent handlebars, blown out O-rings means no rear brake. And this is all from crashing. And he crashes a lot.
So, I paid him a hundred bucks to be in this video. He's very responsive to money. And I'm basically paid him so that I could film his crashes.
Motorcycles can be super dangerous and there's a lot that you don't really consider, especially how risky it can be
to go bike riding until you actually do it. you prepare the bike, get the right gear, and just when you think you're
ready, nobody really talks about what happens after something goes wrong or if you were even healthy enough to do it in the first place. And I used to be
terrible and lazy about my health care, especially my physical health. I didn't get health insurance until I was about 40ome because I couldn't be bothered to
navigate through the ocean of healthc care information I thought I needed just to get started. Now I have kids, I got
to stay fit so I can ride dirt bikes with them, among other things.
Basically, when your body takes a hit, you realize that getting help is the hardest part, especially when you don't know who to call or how long it'll take.
So now I use Zdoc, today's video sponsor, whenever I need to schedule a healthcare appointment. It's simple,
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You got it. You got it. You got it. Oh yes. Come on. and his crashes are micro
failures. The goal with dirt biking I know buddy I know so many rides is to ride as fast as you can
nice without crashing his crashes are micro failures and micro failures suck. Micro failure is what
that brilliant Michael Jordan ad is about. I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost [music] 300 games.
26 times I've been trusted [music] to take the game-winning shot and missed.
I've failed over and over and over again in my life. [music] And that is why I succeed.
And that is why I succeed. Oh my god. Now there's something missing from that perspective or maybe taken for granted.
Let's take a look at the failure success [music] chart. X-axis you've got your time. Y-axis you got your success. As
[music] we approach each failure success threshold, we experience micro failures.
My son's motorcycle crashes, [music] Michael Jordan's missed shots. Now, here's the thing about micro failures.
They temporarily set you back [music] mentally in both progress and time. You lose confidence and hence progress to a
degree [music] and duration that depends upon your character.
The bottom of a micro failure [music] is typically a quitting point, if only for the day or to take a short break.
You get back on [music] the bike or the basketball court and continue your slog towards a success threshold.
When you take your break, something happens. A micro miracle or a breakthrough occurs. And when you go
back to the task, you get a little bit closer to the success threshold. Nice save. Nice save.
What's left out of the Jordan ad or taken for granted in the Jordan ad is
what pulls you or pushes you through the pain towards success. [music] And the answer is love. Jordan loves that game.
We love riding dirt bikes. We use our love to push us through the pain. [music] And then when we get a little closer to success, some external force of love pulls us through it.
[music] Tears. Tears plus love equals success. I made Fernando a plaque as a consolation prize for failing to fix [music] his
shade. Not enough love to finish the shade, but enough love to make a plaque for it.
[music] I used to ride my bike over the Brooklyn [music] Bridge every day and it's an enormous miracle made of millions, maybe
billions of micro [music] miracles and you can feel it. It's one of the world's
great things. The man who started [music] the Brooklyn Bridge Project did not finish the Brooklyn Bridge Project
not because [music] he didn't have enough love, but because he died. He loved it so much that his [music] son
dedicated his life to it and he finished the project.
So, who knows? Maybe my son will finish Dakar. Not going to push him, [music] but maybe love will pull him.
[music] Fernando found me on our Patreon. It's where I interact with the audience. Click [music] this to join. There's 5 years of content on there.
It's the [music] alternative universe to the YouTube channel.
Products & Tools Mentioned
- Zocdoc mentions — sponsor - healthcare appointment booking
People Referenced
Michael Jordan, Fernando
Films & Media Referenced
- iconic ad about learning from failure, quoted in full