Failure is part of your journey
Failure! It is the one thing we all somehow seem to be running from. We are afraid to fail. Afraid that failure means that we are not good enough or that people will judge us by our failures. As a child we were taught that failure is not an option and that once you fail then you cannot advance and somehow you are less than.
In business, the opposite is true. If you have never failed at some part of your journey in business then what exactly have you learned? Some of the greatest minds in business and entrepreneurs that we religiously followed have failed in business. Most notably we have heard about at least 15 times billionaire Ricard Branson has failed at business. But that has never stopped him from trying and trying again until he found the things that have made him quite a huge success today. Failure does not mean the end of your journey but is merely a stepping stone for bigger and better things to come. It is how we learn, grow and expand our entrepreneurial muscles.
According to dictionary.com, failure is defined as ‘an act or instance of failing or proving unsuccessful; lack of success’. But is it really a lack of success? I choose to look at it from a different angle because failure to complete a task may mean that I do not get the intended outcome but it also means that in the planning and execution stage, I learned many new skills and tools along the way. In essence any of my failures have taught me some really invaluable lessons that I utilise to make my next project even better. My chances of success increase every time I fail at one thing. I know what not to do and have a better sense of direction of where I need to grow and who I need to serve
If you do a simple google search, you will read of at least 23 successful people who failed at first– Oprah Winfrey, Walt Disney, Vera Wang, Isaac Newton to name a few. And today we remember them not for their failures but for their legacy. For what they did accomplish and how their tenacity and perseverance has changed the world in which we live in.
As entrepreneurs we become so paralysed by this fear of failure that fail without even trying to fail…if that even makes sense. What I am saying is that, yes, you start each new venture with a dream and hope to succeed. A dream to make a mark in society. A dream to change lives and become a household name. A dream to make millions along the way so that you can live the life you always dreamed about. And it is important that you have those dreams and that drive to push forward. But it is also important to remember that even if you do launch your business and it does not yield the exact results that you want, that you have not only failed but you have learnt and you have grown and now you are better equip to try again and do even better. The goal is to keep trying even when things fall apart or you do not get the results you want. Keep in constant motion and do not let your dream die. Do not let the fear of failure, rejection or judgement stop you from producing something great that the world will love and you will be remembered for.
More importantly, in every failure, your success is right around the corner, so get up each day knowing that what you are doing will make a difference in somebody’s life. That somebody is also learning from your mistakes and that as you get up each day and set a goal that you are much closer to your success than you were before.
If fear of failure is something that has been keeping your paralyzed then let’s get on a FREE discovery call and discuss how you can move past this fear and get you into action.