When you’re working on your business it can be a challenging road. You may feel you’re experiencing more ups than downs. Often you may be wondering if you’re doing anything right, as nothing seems to be working.
Well, after years of personal failures and struggles, you are on the right path! I can tell you that for sure! This is all a part of succeeding. To get to your farthest goal, you must first fail more times than you are succeeding. From what I have experienced in business and life, failure has more weight in gold than success does. Trust me when I say this, even to this day, I still come across things in my business that does not work. It’s all about being aware. Whereas before, I wasn’t. If you been down this path, you are not alone and it’s certainly NOT your fault!
Failure Is the Biggest Secret in Business
When you speak to most entrepreneurs they may admit that they have experienced some bumps in the road. But most will say it was “easy-peasy”. After all, the successful leaders in our industry are the ones that make all the big bucks and can’t ever be seen as failures, right? It seems like people keep it a secret that they can experience a large amount of failure, and rejection, when they are building up their businesses.
Does this sound like you?
- No one calls you back.
- No one visits your website or blog.
- No one buys from you.
The experts make it look so easy! Build a mailing list they say! But, no one has visited your website, or looked at your blog, so how the heck (and why!) would they sign up for your mailing list?!
It can be frustrating to constantly fail again and again and see no rewards. But it’s just a part of what leads to your success.
A Great Idea Doesn’t Guarantee Success
It’s important to consider what other factors can impact your success. Often many people think that “having a great idea” will be what sets their business apart from others, and that having a great idea will make you a millionaire overnight.
Ideas have no weight in gold if you do not execute them!
But the truth is that there really are no new ideas. They’ve all been done before. Even that amazing pet treat-dispensing toy, where you can watch your pets while at work, has been copied at least three times, to varying degrees of success by competitors, and that doesn’t include the other million people who may have thought up the idea at the same time.
Basically, having a good idea for a business may not necessarily turn into successful cash flowing business unless you work hard at implementing it, and getting it out there into the public eyes.
Real-Life Example of Failure
There are many examples of people trying again and again and again, despite failing again, and again, and again. Authors, Stephen King, and JK Rowling have both shared in the media they tried to get their first manuscript sold by contacting hundreds of agents and publishers. Can you believe that most authors today give up after the third rejection? Obviously, successful authors know something we don’t!
Many athletes haven’t gotten to where they are today by succeeding at their first competition, then putting that trophy away. They keep on going even after failing, and even after their first or second medal. There is the famous skateboarder, Christian Flores, who attempted a Laser Flip over a triple set of stairs.
He documented the process over two years. The first attempt failed, and again and again, he failed. His two years of failure were all recorded in the video.
Christian even got some concussions and broken ribs along the way. But did he let that stop him? Nope! He simply practiced and practiced, until he got better. Then finally, one day he aces it! He does his amazing Laser Flip over that triple set of stairs, lands confidently back on the board, and comes to a complete stop! And it’s all recorded on video!
After two years of practice, he was able to accomplish his one big goal!
This type of experience is exactly what it’s like for business people, but no one will tell you that.
The Fear of Failing
Just like when Christian is prepping to make his big jump, he chickens out before he reaches the stairs. The video shows it only a few times, yet in real life, he had two years of endless days of chickening out. We aren’t certain how often it happened, but we know it did.
Just like in real business life, you may also be going along at a decent pace, then you have times where you speed up. There’s that one big goal ahead that you need to nail. The momentum carries you along, then bang! you jump out at the last minute.
You think that you don’t have the money to do it, people will criticize you, or that your clients will hate the product or service you are releasing.
Just like with Christian, you chickened out because you had a fear of failing. You also had the fear that you may get hurt again, which may be related to something that happened in the past. These feelings can overwhelm even the most adept person.
Preparing for What’s Ahead
If you haven’t reached the point where you’ve gone gung-ho, only to suddenly stop in your tracks, then you will. This is one of the most common experiences in growing a business.
It’s important to prepare yourself for what’s ahead. You should get ready to fail fast and hard. But what could go wrong, you think to yourself?
The first issue is that many people will tell you to get a real job. This may even be right after your first failure, or your second failure. “There’s your proof,” they’ll tell you.
You may also have issues with second-guessing yourself. That little voice will tell you things in your head, and they will be negative. It’s important to push that little voice to the back of the closet and have your most positive one rooting for you.
During this entire process, from failure to failure to failure, you’ll have to completely change your business model. You may also have to change your business name, or your marketing plan multiple times over the next two years, just like Christian had to attempt different ways to jump the stairs!
This is all a part of the process.
The Most Famous Quote About Failure
Albert Einstein once said, “A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.” He was one of the historical geniuses of our time. He certainly knew about failure, building his inventions, testing them, and testing them again. Did you know most of them failed?
That’s right. Before one can succeed, one must fail. This is why there is still no cure for cancer, no dog on Mars, and no robot to cook and clean for us—yet. Technology changes quickly, and we may just get there because a group of scientists and engineers are constantly working to get us there. They are paid to fail, but still, they show up at work each day.
How Can You Use This Knowledge?
As you go through the process of building up a business you may be asking yourself various questions. You may ask if you’ve done a good enough job. This may or may not be related to a small success or a failure you’ve achieved.
Do you think you gave it your best shot or do you think you were too lazy and wimped out because you didn’t think it would really work?
But perhaps you’re not really asking yourself if you did the job well enough but more like “Can I quit because this is harder than I thought it would be?”
If you’re thinking about quitting, don’t worry. This is a natural part of the process. Each of these experiences is proof that you are on the right path.
What Is Next?
By now you’ll have had experiences that show that you are on the right path. Yes, you should continue your business plan, because failures are normal.
So, what is next? You keep at it and keep on creating and building up your business. Sure, it’s going to be hard work. You’ll face many failures.
It’s important to record all your successes too. You’ll want to record even the minor ones. If someone has given you a referral, that’s a success! Perhaps you’ve made a sale, even if it’s your lowest service level or a starter product. Who cares? You did it!
Keep track of your successes in a notebook. Someone was nice to you, they thanked you, or they even made a comment on Facebook—note all this information down!
Did you know even rich people still keep working? Sure they plan their trips around the world and take breaks, but they are often working on their next big business deal while sipping their good scotch.
Even if you had all the money in the world, what would you do? What if you had plenty of time, what would you do? What if you had that beautiful or handsome spouse, what would you do? Chances are that you would go on creating! Whatever it is you make of your business, you’d likely still be doing the same, even if you had all that other stuff. Because really, it’s a part of who you are!
The Big Leap in Faith
There will reach a point when you have decided that you don’t need anyone else’s approval. You have only created this business for you and not anyone else. You have created this business because you want to prove to yourself that you can do it.
This process is all about creating your own reality. You will be able to achieve things that no one else can do because you’re unique!
You’ll need to adapt your mindset to thinking about how only you can do this important work. It can be like the cherry on top that gives you a little boost of confidence. It can also remind you that you can do this work you were meant to do, yet it can still be easy and fun.
Famous Goethe Quote
Goethe once said, “Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it!
This is fairly simple to understand. If you can dream it, you can do it. If you have the desire and the inclination then there is no reason why you can’t get started on your dream today.
You’ve Made It This Far, Keep on Going!
If you’ve been making your journey through your life with your small business or entrepreneurship, then you’ve already made it this far! Congratulations! You should give yourself a big pat on the back.
What’s most important of all to remember is that you should continue to embrace the challenges. Remember that if you’re failing more often than you’re succeeding, that you are most likely on that same path to success that Christian was on!
Your Business Is Worth It!
By now you know that your great business is worth pursuing. You’ve wiped out a few times, but you keep ongoing. You’ve built up a supportive business network instead of a bunch of naysayers.
So, how do you keep on going on those days when all seems lost?
Stay positive! You may need to seek out help from networking groups, taking courses, and reading books. You should be continuously on a learning path.
Congratulations, You’ve Failed!
Here is your big gold trophy—it’s virtual but it still has the power to encourage you to keep ongoing. What do you think your next failure will be? When you don’t fear failure as much, you’ll be ready to tackle a bigger idea next time around.
You might as well do it because you don’t want anyone else to do it before you, right?
Failure continues to hold more weight in gold than success. Remember, even when you achieve that one big goal in your life, that you’ll never stop, you’ll keep on trying out new ideas and working on your business!
It’s your turn!
Have you experienced failures in your business? What about your life? What did you to do overcome them? Please share them in the comments section below with others so that we can help lift each other up in this world. Just remember, we’re all in this together! Let’s go out there and make this happen!
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