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How To Handle Failure

jpmartin

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I think one of the problems with Entrepreneurship is we underestimate the kind of effort behind it. Then when failure happens, we get depressed. If you're struggling or facing failure and don't want to admit it - then check out Startups Anonymous
 
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AndrewNC

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Then when failure happens, we get depressed
Perhaps you can re-define failure and get happy. There are two sides to the coin in every situation.
  • I spent $500 and a few months building a private membership site, and I lost all the money. Bad business idea in my early days.
  • I learned how to build a private membership site, and I just built a new one in a different niche in less than a day. I have an awesome skill.
Re-frame to the positive and all your concerns of failure will go away.
 

jpmartin

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Perhaps you can re-define failure and get happy

Yes, whilst that was a general statement intro to Startups Anonymous... I personally, don't see "failure" - but "tests" or "experiments" - this has worked well for me... in fact, I have a list of experiments that didn't work, but taught me something each time.

What I'm asking myself now, is could I have avoided those experiments and did things that worked well... so far, my answer has been YES, by educating myself or standing on the shoulder of giants. This has accelerated by learning curve. We really don't need to re-invent the wheel each time, there are books, courses and mentors who can share the experiments they did and what worked and what didn't.
 

Jab

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I recently had to admit defeat on a business I had been trying to build. For me, what made it possible to move on was doing a thorough and balanced review of all the relevant positives and negatives. This made it much easier for me to take that necessary objective step back and understand that killing the project was the superior choice to trying to make it work.

If anything, I felt relief that I had given myself permission to fail. I felt a burden had lifted and now I can pursue something else.
 
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AndrewNC

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I felt relief that I had given myself permission to fail
I remember hearing an analogy recently just like this...

When we are babies, we fail all the time when we try to walk. If we gave up on our first failure, we wouldn't be walking today.

Somehow when we turn 4 or 5 years old, we are taught that failure is a bad thing. Somehow that nasty belief sticks with us our whole life.

You will learn to walk after you fail enough times.

Could the same hold true for business, as long as we dont give up...we WILL make it?
 

Jab

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I remember hearing an analogy recently just like this...

When we are babies, we fail all the time when we try to walk. If we gave up on our first failure, we wouldn't be walking today.

Somehow when we turn 4 or 5 years old, we are taught that failure is a bad thing. Somehow that nasty belief sticks with us our whole life.

You will learn to walk after you fail enough times.

Could the same hold true for business, as long as we dont give up...we WILL make it?
It's a great analogy. It also brings up the idea of focusing on the bigger picture - which is making yourself a success and living a life of your choosing.

It's all too easy to get bogged down in this particular business/idea but really it could be any of a number of ideas you have which takes you into the fast lane.

And you only need it to happen once.

Remove the emotional connection from any particular endeavour it becomes much easier to see that big picture again.
 

Vigilante

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I like to play chess. I am not great at it, but every game I play I get better. Every time I lose a piece, I try and remember how and why. What I missed. What I will do differently next time to guard my flank.

The first time I played, I was an easy mark. Now, I am not so easy to take. And, should I decide to keep playing, eventually I will be unbeatable.

You want to learn how to fail? Play chess as a student, not as a game.
 
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PeeVee

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I remember hearing an analogy recently just like this...

When we are babies, we fail all the time when we try to walk. If we gave up on our first failure, we wouldn't be walking today.

Somehow when we turn 4 or 5 years old, we are taught that failure is a bad thing. Somehow that nasty belief sticks with us our whole life.

You will learn to walk after you fail enough times.

Could the same hold true for business, as long as we dont give up...we WILL make it?


We should try to be more like babies in so many ways (do it even if your parents tell you not to, don't care what anyone else thinks and so on). To your point, we tend to start to believe the input of others as we get older. Try to be more like toddlers and we will all be good! ;-)
 

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