Paul Calvert spoke with Jaz Ampaw-Farr, a past contestant on the TV show The Apprentice. She shared about her traumatic past and how she's overcome it to inspire others in life and in education.



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I would say "Aim for failure. Aim for epic failure. Fail first, fail fast, don't be failure averse, don't be driven by fear." You can't get the success until you've failed.

Often I ask people "Who's made a mistake today?" If you haven't made a mistake then you're not trying hard enough, you're staying in your comfort zone.

It's all about growth and contribution can only happen when you're making mistakes. Now don't make huge mistakes like robbing a bank or kidnapping a whole city. Don't do that, but take risks that you think "You know I don't know if this is going to work. I don't know if someone has successfully done it before, but the current situation isn't the best it could be and I am going to go for it."

That's the sort of risk and what you find is when you do that people come with you. Everyone is waiting for one person to say "Let's give it a go so that they can join as well."

I would say re-brand failure so that it is your super power, so that you can become a failure Ninja. You can really grasp all those things that frighten you and you're afraid of because everything you want is on the other side of your fear, so dance with it and go straight through it and get there.

Paul: Are you making a difference?

Jaz: Yes I am making a difference. I am making a difference because I get so many fantastic emails and tweets.

When I speak at keynotes and travel around the world, people come up to me afterwards and say that I'm making a huge difference.

Half the time I want to get involved in people's lives and I want to walk with them for the rest of the time, but what I know and what I hope and what I expect is the difference I make is a catalyst for change.

People say to me, "Because of what I have heard, I want to live my life differently." That is what I want to do. That is what everyone else has done for me.

That's the way I thank the people who invested in me and changed my life, by passing that forward to someone else. CR

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.