There’s No Fail: Only Succeed or Learn

There’s No Fail: Only Succeed or Learn

Trying new and brave things is a mark of a successful entrepreneur. You’ve got to take chances, push the envelope and try out new ideas to keep the growing edge of your business sharp. Innovation helps you continue to develop professionally, lest your business stagnate.

The thing about forging into uncharted territory, however, is that there’s a high probability of encountering failure. Not that there’s ever a guarantee of success - even when doing that which is tried and true - but without the experience gained from repeated less-than-flawless attempts, getting something completely right on its maiden voyage is unlikely.

Don’t let the possibility of falling short of your ultimate goal discourage you from trying - or trying again, though. There’s gold in the form of information to be gleaned from every failure. In fact, the process you go through when you miss the mark is more valuable than succeeding right off the bat. Think of it this way: When you immediately succeed, you’ve probably not aimed high enough. It’s when you are reaching for opportunities to discover what you don’t already know, enter unfamiliar territory or stretch far out of your comfort zone that you’ll learn, see things from a new perspective, or stretch your capabilities.

In fact, it might be an inspirational exercise to ban the word "failure" from your vocabulary altogether. More appropriately, substitute that word for learn, as in, you either succeed - or you learn. Reframing the "f" word into an opportunity to gather data turns the tables on the old mindset that there is shame in not succeeding. The real shame would be to miss out on the many up-sides, lessons and opportunities that can be gleaned from a perceived... misfire, like the development of these personal (and company-wide) characteristics:

Non-judgmental mindset - This makes for a fertile environment where, instead of being seen as "lack of" (ability, talent, capacity), a non-successful outcome is seen for its inherent opportunities to spark growth and inform learning.

Resilience/"can-do" attitude - When you develop a mindset that "lack of success" is just part of the natural process, you recover more quickly from setbacks and bravely take another - better informed - run at the goal.

Adaptability/agility - They say that necessity is the mother of invention. When things go amiss, you’re forced to try fresh approaches, seek out new perspectives and explore unfamiliar avenues to solve the problems you encounter.

Out-of-the-box thinking/innovation - Without being aware of a problem in design, manufacture, execution, etc. you would never discover something completely new that could outshine or outperform the original concept.

Learning/problem-solving - Thinking of each misstep as an opportunity to figure out, analyze and assess what went wrong affords you the opportunity to learn from mistakes (and avoid them in the future so your subsequent attempts meet with greater success).

Kicking the concept of failure to the curb can open your mind - and your company - to greater opportunities for success in a myriad of new and different ways. Seeing failures as fuel for growth is a valuable reframe that will help you see them for the valuable intel they provide, keep them in perspective and, ultimately, utilize them as building blocks of your business’ success story.

What have you learned from a failure that was more valuable than success?