It’s important to know that failure is an integral part of success. You cannot become successful as an entrepreneur without experiencing failure along the way, to some degree, failure is inevitable.
Whether it’s a catastrophic business breakdown, the incapacity to secure a crucial deal, or simply the inability to satisfy a customer’s needs, failure, without question, is part and parcel of life and it is certainly part and parcel of being an entrepreneur.
Take a look at any successful entrepreneur, sports person, or business leader and you are actually looking at a ‘successful failure’, as they will have experienced more failures, setbacks and disappointments on their journey to success than most people can ever imagine.
Everything we do, from learning to walk, talk, ride a bike or drive a car is all learnt behaviour, and in our initial attempts at all of these we experienced failure to some degree.
On the road to success failure is inevitable, especially when you are trying new things, stretching yourself and stepping into the unknown. So do expect failure as part of your journey to success. It is important to accept this as a fact of life and learn to deal with failure now, rather than reacting badly when it eventually comes your way.
It was Winston Churchill who said that ‘Success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm’. It is only when your goals are supported by passion, desire, belief and persistence that you will have the resolve to overcome your failures. It is from setbacks that you learn more and develop the resolve and wisdom to move on to greater achievement.
In the book ‘Think and Grow Rich’, Napoleon Hill states that ‘out of every failure, comes a seed of equal or greater opportunity’. This is true but you must look for that seed and be open to receiving it and acting upon it.
The Positive Impact of Failure
Failure must be seen as a good thing, it should be seen as a positive outcome as you actually learn more from failure than from success. Therefore, failure is a great teacher.
Failure gives us judgement and wisdom, and it’s from judgement and wisdom that we can take greater risks. Taking calculated risks are essential to great success.
A commonly cited example of this is Thomas Edison, who invented the electric light bulb. Everyday Mr. Edison toiled to design a working electric light bulb. Each day, for many years, his invention was not the success he wanted. In fact, he had over 10,000 failed attempts before he became successful. Mr. Edison didn’t, however see those 10,000 attempts as failure, he saw those as essential elements in achieving his goals. Through his persistence and his ability to see failure as feedback for success, he was able to change the world.
It is important to understand the link between success and failure. From now on, you may want to change the way you think about successful people. Rather than seeing them purely as successful individuals, change your perspective to see successful people as successful failures. In reality this is what they are.
They have faced and conquered failure more often than many could ever begin to imagine. It’s their ability to recover from failure and to charge forward to achieve their goals that sets the successful entrepreneurs apart. It is how you handle failure that makes the difference, being able to make the most of failure and turn it into a positive is a key skill. It’s also an essential part of the millionaire mindset.
Failure is a strong word with negative connections, in reality you will make a series of mistakes. Learn from your mistakes and do not make them again. It’s been said many times before, and I have certainly seen it in my life, that you learn more when things go wrong rather than when they go well. Not only do you learn more, but failure also gives you more experience and strengthens your resolve.
A wise man once said ‘if you are not failing, you are not trying hard enough’ and ‘those who fail to start are actually the real failures’.
Although it is important to be able to deal with failure and to get the most out of it, it is also important not to fail in the first place. Starting a business is a very tough and challenging undertaking. It’s a fact that more businesses fail than survive, therefore, it is important to give yourself every possible chance of success. A good way to do this is to learn from other people’s failures.
This is something to bear in mind during challenging times. It is unlikely that every project you start will succeed as planned, but it is the very fact that you are prepared to try that will set you on the path to eventual success.
“I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward.”-Thomas A. Edison
My 642 Arsenal of Success 