Why failure is the only option

One of the biggest obstacles to starting a small business is the fear of failure. I’m not sure where the fear started. Maybe it was grade school where perfection was the goal, where getting A’s and 100% scores were rewarded. Maybe it is from society that recognizes and rewards the flawless and shuns the people who do not meet a standard of perfection. Wherever it comes from, fear of failure derails the dreams of startup business before they ever open their doors.

To start your own business you must get over your fear of failure. First, let’s recognize that starting something new is scary and you will be full of questions like:

  • What if I fail?

  • What if nobody buys it?

  • What if people thinks it’s a dumb idea?

  • What if I lose money and then my security and my status?

  • What if I am wasting my time and I should be just doing some thing else?

Those questions, and any and many other negative thoughts, will fill your mind as you start something new. The fear of failure will trap you and prevent you from taking action on your dreams. Remember that there is no growth without failure. Without the lessons learned by trying something and failing, you will not reap the benefits of taking action. Here are three benefits of trying something that fails.

Three Benefits of Failure

You discover data about your product and customers

The first benefit is you know something that doesn’t work. When you try a new product you will get a host of feedback on that product from potential customers. They will be able to tell you what they liked about the product what they didn’t like about the product. Why they chose your product over a different product or why your product was left in the checkout cart. All that data helps you in your business. Trying new things helps you uncover the ideas that do work and helps you get rid of the ideas that do not work. Eric Ries in his book “The Lean Startup” says “…think of starting a business like a science experiment.”

A startup is a catalyst that turns ideas into products. Customers interact with the product which produces qualitative and quantitative feedback.

Eric Ries, The Lean Startup

You get stronger and grow your abilities

When you try something new, you’re going to learn new lessons. If you keep doing the same thing over and over again you might get very good in those areas, but you’re not going to grow. The lessons small business learns from its failures will strengthen it and allow it to take on bigger challenges. When I was running a virtual assistant company we did not have any trouble attracting clients. We were in demand. We hired multiple staff with what we thought was a great vetting system. It was not. Some staff came in with flaws that should’ve been caught. While other staff wanted a virtual assistant job but not a virtual assistant job in our mental health niche. We learn the lessons the hard way of vetting staff appropriately with behavior interview questions. As the owner summed my feelings when I described our new process “If its not a hell yes, its a no.” With the bitter lessoned learned of hiring the wrong people, new behavioral interviewing techniques, and the filleter of “no” we hired fantastic staff going forward. Once we went through the rough patch of figuring out what skills we need to improve our next several hires were employees who contributed from day one.

You adapt quicker

Finally, one of the best reasons to try something is try and fail is to figure out what doesn’t work quickly. It does no good to spend months and months of time preparing the “best” product and systems only to realize that you were going in the wrong direction. Or you made a fundamental flaw early on which wrecks the rest of the system. If wanting to create the perfect system prevents you from starting then you are wasting time and losing valuable information about getting started. Learn what works and what doesn’t work early. There is less invested and less risk at the start of a project. And the lessons learned are invaluable for adapting to what your customer needs. It’s better to start and fail then to never start at all or to start after investing a mammoth amount of resources that will never turn into revenue.

What have you learned from failure?

I would like to do a follow-up blog with the valuable lessons other small business owners have learned from failure. What did you learn about yourself, what did you learn about your customers, or what did you learn about your product? The lessons you learned from failure are hard earned so share them today. You can comment below or send me a message privately.

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