If you’ve been aching to make changes, develop new ideas or even get your business started, but have been put off by a fear of getting things wrong or failure, then I’ve got some good news for you…
Failure is a key ingredient of business success!
It can be scary on your own, and people will probably try to help out by giving you lots of advice. However, you won’t often hear them say “go on and do it and make lots of mistakes!” But, believe me, these words are worth their weight in gold.
Don’t believe me?
Why not ask Sir James Dyson?
The famous founder of the Dyson company spent fifteen years creating a total of 5,126 versions of his Dual Cyclone vacuum cleaner, before he finally made one that worked!
His reward for all that hard work – and all that so-called failure – was a hugely successful company, known worldwide for its innovative designs.
You never learn from success, but you do learn from failure! – JAMES DYSON
In that one quote, he has hit perfectly upon the reason why failure is so important in business.
Failure Makes Us Better at Business
Failure helps us test our ideas, identify problems, solve or work around them, and then become much better on our next attempt. It builds the vital resilience we all need in business, because we learn that the world isn’t going to end if we fail at something. Instead, we understand that we just need to try something else, or find a new way.
Every business is unique, which means there is no ‘one size fits all’ route to success. That may seem terrifying at first, but it’s also a very exciting fact. It means there are endless opportunities for you to try new things, fail, succeed, fail again, succeed again, and blaze a brand-new trail as an entrepreneur…doing things your way.
Doesn’t that sound like a tempting prospect?
“Fail to Plan; Plan to Fail?”
Anybody who knows me, knows I’m a huge fan of planning. However, I often think the well-worn phrase, “fail to plan, plan to fail” is taken out of context.
There is no doubt that you need to have at least a basic plan in place when you start out in business. You’ll need to understand where your success – and money! – is going to come from, where and who your customers are, and how to reach them.
But your plan should include the prospect of failure along the way.
You will fail at some point, and when you do, be proud! This is business in the real world, and you’ll now understand more about how to get it right.
If You’re Not Failing, Does That Mean You’re Succeeding?
Only the risk-averse never fail.
That might seem like a good thing, but in reality, the risk-averse also never really succeed.
Why? They’re not forging ahead with those huge, exciting ideas that are going to differentiate them in a crowded market, and they’re not learning from their mistakes.
Small wins can be great, but big, bold wins – especially when they happen after a period of losses – are exhilarating. It’s what the business world is all about.
Who wants to slog tirelessly day in, day out, at the same old unchanging things?
So as you take your steps forward in the business world, be brave. Trust your instincts, but try to listen to other ideas, too. You won’t – and can’t possibly! – know everything, and other, trusted people’s insights may prove to be invaluable.
Your next, huge, business idea could be waiting just around the corner.
Everything Leads Back to Passion
The passion you have for your business is what is going to carry you through the failures to come (and as we’ve already covered, there will be failures to come!)
Your passion will keep that fire constantly burning. Passion will make you want to get to the bottom of those failures, try out exciting new ideas, and put the brakes on what doesn’t work, so you can concentrate on what does.
If you’ve got passion for your business, then even if you fail, nothing will ever go 100% wrong.
Can you think of any business that gets it 100% right, 100% of the time?
Have you got any stories of failure – or indeed, of success after failure – to share, I’d love to hear them Just pop them in the Comments box below.
And, if you want to talk to a business owner who puts her hands up to all her mighty failures and has come out more successful and resilient on the other side – And who could be just the person to help you embrace the failures that could take your business from passion to profit, book a call!