‘Another day of monotony Has gotten me to the point, I’m like a snail I’ve got to formulate a plot ‘fore I end up in jail or shot Success is my only (explicit) option, failure’s not.’ ~ Eminem ‘Lose Yourself’
Is success really the only option?
Winston Churchill said: “Success is not final; failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
We give failure way too much power and credit. Once we fail at something we take it personally and it makes our self-esteem drop like a lead balloon. How are you defining failure? Merriam-Webster says that it is a ‘lack of success or falling short.’ However, it does not say that it is fatal and permanent. Therefore, why are you taking it as it is so?
Failure, like anything else in business, is a ‘mindset.’ You can let it kill all your hopes, dreams and expectations, or, you can simply tell yourself: “Okay, I know that didn’t work, so let’s see if we can do it another way.” When Edison was asked if he ever got discouraged at failing to invent the lightbulb he simply stated: “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” How many times have you found that it won’t work?
We as a society tend to focus on the negative rather than the positive and why not, look what we are bombarded with. I have not watched the news in a very long time. However, I am completely informed as I chose to learn about events through other means. What we as a society, and especially need to do in business is look at the positive. You see, you did not fail, you just found another way that it does not work. Is that not a positive?
However, from failure comes an opportunity to refocus and check if your expectations were unrealistic and if so, to reset them to a more realistic outcome. Once you have reset those expectations, you may realize that you could use a little help. We all need help from time to time which is why we should all have people and/or mentors we can go to for help and advice. I have three different mentors that I rely on heavily. You may need to hire a coach to make your journey easier. That is why I created The Action Suite so that you can learn from my failures. In getting coaching you will find that your learning curve greatly reduces which means you become profitable a lot earlier than if you were to do it on your own.
The single biggest mistake that we all tend to do is that of inaction. We are too busy feeling sorry for ourselves which makes us give in to failure. These are those among us which just throw their hands up in the air and yell: “I give up.” Wow! Luckily you didn’t do that when you first attempted to walk as a very young child. Another thing I see is people start to follow the status quo instead of being innovative and creative. Remember, one of the main concepts of business is ‘be different than everyone else.’ After all, if you are exactly the same as everyone else, why should I use your services.
Therefore, is failure an option? Well, show me a person that has never failed and I will show you someone that has never tried anything.
Failure is part of a successful business. The only way to grow is to make mistakes. Fortunately as you business grows and ages the mistakes tend to be fewer and far between.