Failure - An Entrepreneur's Best Friend
Failure is an entrepreneur's best friend???? What the hell am I talking about? To understand this, let's look at learning...I believe learning is an individual changing their behavior in response to "failure(s)" until a desirable result is achieved. By this definition, learning CANNOT HAPPEN without failure.
How a person reacts to a fear of failure is what I believe separates an entrepreneur from a "non-entrepreneur" (I think I just made that word up). A "non-entrepreneur" typically fears failure and avoids it at all costs. An entrepreneur embraces it and knows it is a part of growing and becoming successful. I've heard many times that the average entrepreneur has three companies that fail before he/she has one that is successful. I'm a third of the way there! I believe what an entrepreneur has to do to be truly successful is a) shake off past mistakes just as a good shooter in basketball must not let a missed shot affect his/her next shot and b) break down those past mistakes and squeeze as much knowledge as possible from those mistakes.
Now it is important to note, that an entrepreneur should not get USED to failure. Mistakes do cost money and too many of them will put someone out of business. What I'm saying is that an entrepreneur's plan must include steps to avoid failures, but the plan must also ACCOUNT for failures as well.
By that same token, just as an entrepreneur must learn from failures, their employees also learn from failures. My philosophy as a manager has always been to provide your employees a safe environment to make mistakes and put them in situations where the mistakes they make can have limited negative impact on the company. As the employee gains confidence and proves himself/herself, a manager's job is to place them in an environment that is slightly less "safe" and increasingly more challenging.
Failure is an entrepreneur's best friend. Learn to embrace failure, learn to LEARN from failure, learn to beat failure, don't make the same mistakes twice, and allow your employees to do the same.
How a person reacts to a fear of failure is what I believe separates an entrepreneur from a "non-entrepreneur" (I think I just made that word up). A "non-entrepreneur" typically fears failure and avoids it at all costs. An entrepreneur embraces it and knows it is a part of growing and becoming successful. I've heard many times that the average entrepreneur has three companies that fail before he/she has one that is successful. I'm a third of the way there! I believe what an entrepreneur has to do to be truly successful is a) shake off past mistakes just as a good shooter in basketball must not let a missed shot affect his/her next shot and b) break down those past mistakes and squeeze as much knowledge as possible from those mistakes.
Now it is important to note, that an entrepreneur should not get USED to failure. Mistakes do cost money and too many of them will put someone out of business. What I'm saying is that an entrepreneur's plan must include steps to avoid failures, but the plan must also ACCOUNT for failures as well.
By that same token, just as an entrepreneur must learn from failures, their employees also learn from failures. My philosophy as a manager has always been to provide your employees a safe environment to make mistakes and put them in situations where the mistakes they make can have limited negative impact on the company. As the employee gains confidence and proves himself/herself, a manager's job is to place them in an environment that is slightly less "safe" and increasingly more challenging.
Failure is an entrepreneur's best friend. Learn to embrace failure, learn to LEARN from failure, learn to beat failure, don't make the same mistakes twice, and allow your employees to do the same.
I really needed to read this because even though I just started a new business within the past year, I already have another business idea that I am ready to dive into. Most of my family and friends don't understand why I would want to even think about another business when I am still getting my first one off of the ground.
I have every intention of continuing my first business, but I am beginning research on the next one. I guess I just needed to read that having more than one idea/business venture is doable.
Thanks for sharing your experiences. It is very helpful to learn from people that have successfully been through this process.
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LaTisha - thanks for your comment. The feedback that I received from you as well as a few others has me motivated to continue this blog. As far as your comment on multiple businesses, I think as long as you can manage your time and neither business suffers, I'm all for as many businesses as you can handle! I've networked with many entrepreneurs that are much more successful than I and I don't think a single one of them has "just one" business.
On the flip side, at one point this year I do think I took on too many projects to the point that my core business, CTE Healthcare Communications, started to suffer. That was my cue to drop something which I did (I sold one of my business...for a loss). But I still run two businesses, CTE and my real estate development company, X-Investments, Inc. If you can handle it, I'm a HUGE advocate for multiple ventures. Just as you never want to invest in one stock, an entrepreneur almost HAS to diversify his/her income stream and not rely on one source.
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