As a famous saying goes: “I haven’t failed 1,000 times; I’ve learned 1,000 wrong ways of doing things.” We often hear about the great successes of entrepreneurs and business owners, but obviously very few places publish the stories of entrepreneurs who failed in the attempt. We rarely even hear about the failures that great business people went through before they hit on the business idea that made them successful.
Even so, when an entrepreneur decides to take the plunge, success and failure are both possibilities, because they depend on many factors. Most of the time, though, failure is without a doubt the entrepreneur’s mistake, and one they have to learn from for next time. Some will say, or use as an excuse, that they had bad luck, that the market suddenly changed, that it didn’t have the impact they hoped for, and so on, but the only reality is that the entrepreneur failed.
Maybe they didn’t do proper market research, maybe the business plan or strategy wasn’t well put together or thought through, or maybe they didn’t design a marketing campaign suited to their product or service.
The sooner you accept that the mistake was yours and not “bad luck”, the sooner you can learn the lesson so you don’t fall into the same trap again.
The biggest mistake an entrepreneur who has failed can make is to give up, to quit, to throw in the towel. That’s the last thing you should do. If a business fails, it isn’t the end of your career, just as your girlfriend leaving you isn’t the end of your life.
Remember this line: “If you’ve never failed, you’ve never lived.” In a previous article we looked at the failures some people went through before they found success; you can read it here: Success and failure: two things we have to learn. The point is that only the person who tries can fail, but the only true failure is the person who stops trying. As long as you keep at it, still trying, you will never fail, because you’ll always be trying.
The game isn’t over as long as the player keeps playing.
So forgive me for contradicting myself, but failure isn’t a possibility: it’s something that, the sooner it comes, the sooner it teaches us to improve.
Are you afraid of failure? Then you’re afraid of life, because life is full of failures and rewards in every area.
Is your fear of failure holding you back? That’s because you see an obstacle and not the opportunity hidden behind it once you’ve overcome it.
It won’t be easy, but few things worth having are. Failing is doing nothing with your life. Failing is never making a mistake, because that means you’ve never tried anything.
There’s something people who want to get into investing are told: sooner or later they’ll lose money, and the sooner they take their first losses, the better.
Have you tried to start a business and already failed? Congratulations: you’re now better prepared than the “rookie” entrepreneur.
If you’re one of those people who would like to start a business but are afraid of failing, the following articles are for you.
Further reading
- How to lose your fear of starting a business and of failure
- The secret of success
- Steve Jobs’ early days: an inspiring entrepreneurial story
- Donald Trump and the entrepreneur’s mindset
- 12 motivational quotes and proverbs for entrepreneurs
Featured image: photosteve101, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr.
