Many of us, CrossFitters, weightlifters, strongmen, gymnasts, NFL players, and entrepreneurs alike have hit that wall at some point where we ask ourselves, "why am I still doing this?"

For me it was after a particularly frustrating attempt at deficit handstand push-ups that no matter how many times I tried, I fell on my head, repeatedly. With a pounding headache I sat down with my coach afterwards and he explained to me something I'll never forget, "Successful people aren't the ones who are the most talented, they are the ones who stick with it the longest." This simple statement put that frustrating day (and the many that have followed) into perspective. Whatever your walk of life, if success is your goal, you have to put countless hours into training, learning, improving, and most importantly: failing. 

Many of you probably watched the 15.3 Open announcement and thought, "14 minutes of failed muscle up attempts..." But without that failure, we would never succeed. Those of you that actually had this experience, do you feel closer to successfully completing a muscle up? Did you learn anything from that repeated failure? My guess would be yes, even if you didn't get one. Anyone who has found success in any sport knows the ripe taste of failure better than anyone. Camille LeBlanc Bazinet has failed a muscle up. Remember when Rich Froning couldn't do a rope climb? 

Start watching at at 16:30

Check out this video of Julie Foucher practicing her olympic lifts in 2009. Look familiar? It takes hours, days, weeks, years of failures to even come close to that feeling of true success. The question remains the same for all of us, how many times will you try?