---
feed: "DANIEL_ON_SLOPE"
codex_section: "S09"
source: VideoTranscript
title: "360MEN Learning From Failure"
conv_id: "video-UI8J2ju65j4-20180502"
share_url: "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UI8J2ju65j4"
created: "2018-05-02"
message_count: 1
category:
  - "360MEN"
  - "Personal Growth"
  - "Entrepreneurship"
summary: "At Choke Canyon Reservoir, Texas, Daniel reflects on a failed windsurfing attempt caused by poor questioning and unexamined assumptions (water 26 feet low meant vertical drop + submerged trees, not a short walk). He connects this real-time frustration to broader lessons in entrepreneurship and life: transform questions to shift perspective, embrace iterations and conscious incompetence, reframe expectations, and learn rapidly from failure instead of emotional spirals. Referencing Dean Rush’s earlier insight, Daniel likens the current road journey with Angelina to the early disciples’ trust-based mission — going without full plans and allowing exponential growth through small, adaptive steps."
keypoints:
  - "Changing the quality of our questions transforms perspective, shortens learning curves, and prevents costly misunderstandings"
  - "Entrepreneurship is fundamentally about rapid iterations and learning from failure rather than perfect launches or tests"
  - "Move from unconsciously incompetent to consciously incompetent, then use tools like reframing, black-box thinking, and forward scenario planning to solve problems"
  - "Expectations rarely match reality; success requires releasing half-baked beliefs daily, accepting the actual journey, and keeping hope alive"
  - "Practical example: miscommunication about lake levels led to dangerous trees and a long hike — solved by reframing the campsite into a functional (if imperfect) solution"
tags:
  - "360men"
  - "learning-from-failure"
  - "question-transformation"
  - "iterations"
  - "conscious-incompetence"
  - "reframing"
  - "entrepreneurial-mindset"
  - "scotomaville"
monomyth_stage: "06 - Tests, Allies, Enemies"
gameboard_position: "Camp 2: Tests, Allies, Enemies"
truth_score: 88
entropy_score: "Low"
tone:
  sentiment: "Reflective"
  emotions:
    - "Earnest"
    - "Frustrated"
    - "Hopeful"
    - "Light-hearted"
  sycophancy_level: "None"
  notes: "Casual on-location monologue with spontaneous laughter and self-deprecating humor; real-time problem-solving demonstration; references prior Mugshots and Coffee with Dean Rush; no AI avatars."
related_events: ["video-nX5oBYOtV5Y-20180424"]
syndication_status:
  arnie: false
  chris: false
  redmond: false
  clint: false
  pilot: false
ma5_inheritance: "None"
pre_silicon: true
voice_print: false
codex_candidate: false
phase: "Prologue Scene - Real-Time Failure as Teaching Moment"
enriched_date: "2026-04-13"
---
![[UI8J2ju65j4_maxres.jpg]]
### Original YouTube Description

Daniel Comp shares several insights on learning from failures by looking at the quality of our questions. By changing the questions we ask, we change our perspective and our outcomes. AI is learning to mimic human skills and thought patterns. Teaching machines to produce better answers is similar and different than helping calm our emotional triggers when our expectations are not met - and we find ourselves short of time, money and patience. Join the conversation at [http://360MEN.net](http://360MEN.net) and share your story of overcoming communication misunderstanding.

### Cleaned Transcript

**Daniel:**  
One of the things Dean Rush shared with me two weeks ago in our Mugshots and Coffee session was that he seemed to equate the journey Angelina and I are on currently around the country to what the early disciples did — where Jesus, one person, had commissioned twelve to go out and find six which ended up being 72. So there’s exponential growth. And the instructions He gave them was not to be concerned about what they wore or their provisions or how it was all gonna work out and all the deep planning that they needed. They were just to go and trust that things would work out.  

And this trip so far has been so much like that. And that becomes part of the iterations and part of the exploration — being okay with not having all the details planned out and then having the skillsets to transform your questions so that you can get small incremental movement in the direction you want to go.  

And it’s not a comfortable feeling. As I said in one other lesson, you have to go from being unconsciously incompetent to consciously incompetent. That’s a sad feeling because you’re going, “Now I know how bad I am at this.”  

We’ve come to windsurf. Plenty of wind. Angelina and I have come to Choke Lake Canyon here in Texas — north of Corpus Christi and south of San Antonio — to windsurf because there’s lots of wind. Unfortunately we have another iteration we have to do today. We had to learn that 26 feet down — we were told — meant vertical. There’s no… or worse. It turns out the problem is they forgot to remove the trees from the lake. So just about anywhere you windsurf, if you fall you could impale yourself on a tree limb. I think the risk is a little too high to go out on this kind of stuff. We didn’t see that coming.  

So our waterfront camping — or waterfront camping right here which seemed pretty good — in actuality turned out to be one heck of a hike. What was advertised as perfect windsurfing with the wind turns out to be vacant because basically it was a slight misunderstanding in terms. When Angelina talked to the ranger they said, “Oh well the water’s down 26 feet from the shore,” and she thought that meant we’d have to hike an extra 26 feet from the camper out to the water. Now that meant vertical height. It’s about a third to a half a mile offshore and then all the trees are exposed.  

Okay, so we didn’t ask the right questions or we jumped to a conclusion hoping to find what we expected. Oh, you’ve never done that in business have you? Launched something and failed miserably. I’ve learned to change the word — we’re not launching an enterprise, we’re not even testing the market. It’s just a straight-up experiment to see what we’re gonna learn.  

Well that got me thinking. It becomes 3 o’clock in the morning that I’m up and in that bright wonderful peaceful time writing all kinds of notes. The idea that entrepreneurship is about iterations, is about learning as fast as you can from your failures, and a lot of that involves question transformation. So I thought we should talk about that. We should have a series of how do you solve problems, how do you get to the right answer, how do you shorten that learning curve that so often just cripples you in the indecision or frustration, disappointment — all those heartache things that cost you time and money. So that’s a good thing. So let’s have a thought about it.  

One of the benefits of having creative thinking skills is that it helps you avoid that out-of-money and out-of-time problem. So if you learn things about how to look to your history — you know, read history books and learn from history, look back at previous cases of where you or other people have done something — learn. You can learn from that or find patterns. Here’s the Big Dipper, right? Find a repetitive pattern in your behavior or the way you think or the triggers that come up and try to resolve that one. Or actually reframe your goals so that you end up focusing on what the target is and not so much of wandering around good enough. I hope this and that.  

Last night as darkness was coming we were trying to decide whether we should register here or drive further or drive north to another rest stop or you know what were our options. And we’re going through all these different iterations and all these different possible scenarios and all of this little discussion and emotions all coming up with why we didn’t plan better, why we didn’t ask better questions and all that. But the point we needed to do was to focus for a moment and think about transforming the problem — the question we were asking ourselves about how can we get to the perfect windsurfing spot where we can also finish our work and have the sessions in between. How do we get to that ideal in our mind from where we’re at with what we’ve got and the time we have. Oh my god it got all complicated and emotional until we remembered — alright let’s use a few of our tools. What are we really trying to do? Oh we really want a safe place to sleep at the least, driving and time experience. Well why can’t we just boondock here? Why do we have to pay for full hookups and all that other stuff? So we ended up solving our problem in an unexpected fashion and then reminding ourselves — oh that’s right, problem solving is about stepping out of it emotionally for a moment and using some of the tools like iterations and black box thinking, forward imagining different scenarios, figuring out what your real targets are. And things that we’ll go into in other lessons that we went… Oh, problem solved.  

I’m not sure if this so much fits with today’s thought but once in a while you have to really sort of let go of stuff. Pretty much half of what we believe in any case is wrong. So being able to dump it — that’s sort of a daily kind of ritual you got to get used to. Your brain will rewire. You’ll pick up new beliefs and new behaviors, change course slightly and get more on track. But you got to go through the iterations and you got to work out the chunks. You got to make sure that everything is out.  

Okay, enough about analogy. We’re talking about one of our clients that we so relate to because it’s very infrequent that the way forward to our goal matches the ideal we’d like it to be. And we often have to reframe our expectations on how it’s going to happen and accept the journey the way it does happen without losing hope in your heart that it will happen.  

How badly do you think the actual meets the expectations? Really badly. I know that I need to ask better questions when I’m calling the parks before reserving a spot. Because when somebody says the water is low and even though I asked how low and they say 26 feet, I need to ask: is there anything dangerous sticking out of the water that could impale my husband while he’s windsurfing? Other questions… yeah.  

Here’s the perfect example of solving a problem but not seeing a different point of view. So I’m trying to keep the tire on the concrete and keep the front away from the branches so that I can get absolutely as much room here and not get this sand and dirt inside the Airstream — to make sure the dirt’s as far away as possible. And what did you say?  

Reframe the problem. Hey it’s pretty but certainly more functional and a heck of a lot less dirty. This is the wind and the water that we expected.

---

**CODEX ENTRY**

**Date:** 2018-05-02  
**File:** 360MEN Learning From Failure.md  
**Monomyth Stage:** 06 - Tests, Allies, Enemies  
**Gameboard:** Camp 2: Tests, Allies, Enemies  
**MA5 Domain:** None  
**Summary:** While dealing with a disappointing windsurfing campsite at Choke Canyon Reservoir caused by unclear questions and assumptions, Daniel extracts practical lessons on transforming questions, embracing iterations, moving through conscious incompetence, and reframing expectations — turning everyday failure into accelerated learning for entrepreneurship and life.  
**Key Insight:** The quality of our questions determines the speed and quality of learning; by reframing problems emotionally and using iterative tools instead of clinging to ideals, we shorten painful cycles and stay on mission even when reality diverges sharply from expectation.  
**Narrative Significance:** This on-location teaching moment captures the gritty reality of the 360MEN/Scotomaville road journey — mirroring the disciples’ trust-based sending — and models the exact mindset shift required for men in the peloton: fail fast, ask better, reframe often, and keep moving forward with hope intact.

---

**INITIUM.**