Failure is now accepted as a necessary part of the business world. You frequently hear that nine out of ten new businesses fail. Your company is told that it has very little to no possibility of success. You may have heard that failure develops character. “Fail early and fail often,” is a common piece of advice.
You can’t help but breathe it in when there is so much failure around. Don’t breathe in. Don’t let the statistics mislead you. Failures of other people are just that—failures of other people.
You’re not to blame if other individuals can’t successfully advertise their goods. It is not your fault if other people are unable to assemble a cohesive team. It has nothing to do with you if other individuals can’t properly price their services. If others are unable to make more money than they spend, well, you get the picture.
The idea that you should learn from your failures is another prevalent myth. What do mistakes actually teach you? You may learn what not to do in the future, but how useful is that? You’re still unsure of your next move.
In contrast, success-based learning is a better approach. Success offers you actual ammunition. When something works, you can repeat it because you know what worked the first time. You’ll probably perform even better the following time.
Failure is not a requirement for success. Successful entrepreneurs are much more likely to succeed again, according to research from Harvard Business School (the success rate for their future companies is 34 percent). However, business owners whose first ventures failed had a success percentage of just 23%—almost the same as those who were launching their first venture. People who have previously failed are just as successful as those who have never tried. Success is the experience that really matters.
That shouldn’t come as a surprise because that is exactly how nature functions. Evolutions never dwells on the previous mistakes; instead, it constantly builds on what has succeeded. So should you.
