Entrepreneurial Failures Will Make You Better

To be an entrepreneur you'll must discover ways to deal with failure. There is no way around it. Thomas Edison attempted over 10000 exclusive experiments before he finally demonstrated the first incandescent light bulb on October 21, 1879. Bill Gates’ first company, Traf-O-Data, was a failure. Michael Jordan ones said: “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost nearly three hundred games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot; And missed. I’ve failed again and again in my life. And this is why I succeed.”

In my short stint as an entrepreneur, I’ve failed more times than I can count. I even have also had my share of success, however, it’s now no longer even close to equal. The failures can outweigh the successes, and I’m positive I even have a lot more failure ahead of me. I’m OK with that due to the fact I recognize that as soon as I stop failing, I have stopped trying to innovate. It’s the nature of the business of being an entrepreneur, and of success in general.

If it had been easy, then everybody should be able to do it. It is naive to think that each good idea you have will result in a successful business venture. I have yet to hear an entrepreneur say “every single concept I come up with seems to work.” More likely, you listen to something like “I failed at my first 5 businesses earlier than this one took off.”

Think about that for a second. Five businesses. Sometimes the number is three, from time to time it’s 20, however, the important factor is that most entrepreneurs don’t hit a home run with their first company. It does amaze me – what number of human beings have the stones to fail 5 times and still begin the 6th business? You have to be supremely confident and deal with those previous 5 times as a learning experience for the 6th. And if number six fails, you need to do the same and move directly to number seven.

In my opinion, the most crucial aspect is the way you deal with failure. Once you receive that it’s inevitable, you are capable of learning from your errors and move on. It’s easy to let the failure consume you – not so much because you're pessimistic, but more because it is tough to see something which you poured your heart and soul into be ignored or rejected. As quickly as possible you need to realize that your business is what they're ignoring or rejecting, NOT you. The faster you do that, the earlier you can objectively examine why you failed and analyze the things necessary for improvement in the future.

Failure isn’t easy and is extremely frustrating, however, is the important part of success. Don’t consider me? Ask Thomas Edison, Bill Gates, Robert Kiyosaki or Michael Jordan! Ok, asking Thomas Edison is probably a little tough, however you get the concept.