Make Peace with Failure
Culturally, we equate failure with guilt, shame, and depression. We need to develop new strategies to deal with failure. At this point, first of all, the perspective on failure needs to be changed. Making mistakes, falling short of expectations and failing is a reality of the business world. I have not encountered any of these.
Success eliminates the luck factor because of the need for continuity. In short, if you want to be successful in something, you must first understand and learn what failure means. Understanding and learning seem very close at first glance. Yes it is close but not the same. You may not be able to apply what you understand, and what you learn allows you to create reflexes that are just for you. These reflexes also illuminate the path to success.
Having an entrepreneurial spirit requires embracing failure as well as understanding and learning about failure. Embracing failure may seem like a negative feeling. But as an entrepreneur, you can absolutely count on the possibility of failure at some point in your career. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Business Employment Dynamics, about 20 percent of new businesses fail in their first year and half fail in their fifth year. Even if your business has been successful for ten years or more, you may encounter situations where you may experience unsuccessful results, such as losing a major customer and/or getting caught up in a price war with your competitor. Embracing failure also empowers you to come up with new solutions. Therefore, this is the primary need of having an entrepreneurial spirit.
The human lifespan has become much longer thanks to the developing technology and modern life. But the time we survive may still not be long enough to learn from our failures. In fact, we don't have that many chances to fail in order to succeed. In short, life is too short to learn from our own mistakes, and that's why we need to learn from the mistakes of others. At this point, being in 2019 and accessing all kinds of information so easily is an opportunity.
The advice Anna Johansson mentions in a recent article on failure can be very helpful in this regard:
Remember that failure is not the end
First change how you view failure. In the minds of many new and inexperienced entrepreneurs, failure seems like the end of the road. They think they did everything wrong or that they have no chance of success in the future. In fact, it's just a start and/or an early return from a journey with a worse ending.
You can be inspired by entrepreneurs who have failed over and over again but are still making progress, or those whose first attempts have failed completely. Note, for example, that Traf-o-Data, Bill Gates' first company, almost completely failed and was not the last of his controversial business decisions. Yet today he is one of the richest people on the planet. Also keep in mind that despite Richard Branson, who created incredibly strong companies and brands like Virgin, he also made several failed attempts, including Virgin Cola, Virgin Cosmetics and Virgin Cars.
Eliminating Pressure (if you can)
Starting a company from scratch is a big undertaking that puts pressure on your finances and requires countless hours of work. Instead of constantly getting into things, take a moment to relieve the pressure. De-stress before returning to work with your next idea.
Few successful entrepreneurs find satisfaction or profitability by jumping from one opportunity to the next. After completing a project or reaching a crucial milestone (whether successful or unsuccessful), seasoned entrepreneurs are often a few days or weeks away to take things to the next level.
Research shows that taking vacations or active rest can increase productivity by reducing risks such as heart disease and depression. In other words, taking some time for yourself can help you take the next venture with the right health and energy.
Take note of important lessons about your failure
If you take note of the lessons you learned from your failure, you can learn to handle failure more efficiently. In addition, writing something forces you to think and allows you to transfer the ideas you have to the future in a healthier way. Making a list can serve as an inspiration to remind you of your most important lessons the next time you encounter an important opportunity.
Spend at least a few hours looking back on your experiences. Note down any decisions you could have made differently and things you wanted to know earlier. This will also help you turn your failure into a more positive experience because the "now" is an opportunity for learning and growth.
Embrace being a novice
Steve Jobs on leaving Apple: “…It turned out that getting fired from pple was the best thing that could have happened to me. The weight of success was replaced by the lightness of starting over, I was less sure of everything. It allowed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.” says.
You may not like the idea of starting over, but try to have a positive outlook towards it. First, you start exploring new opportunities; and best of all, you have time to evaluate them.
Bonus:
Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love (Eat, Pray, Love) can give you a different perspective to guide our motivation in her inspirational speech on how success and failure distance people equally.