Are you getting ready to plunge yourself into entrepreneurship and have doubts whether you will be successful or not? Learn how to not only cope with business failure but embrace it as an integral part of your entrepreneurial journey – all to achieve business success.
One thing people fear most about entrepreneurship is failure. That’s why many people consider entrepreneurship as a risky choice of career. But come to think again, what’s not risky when you are doing something for a living?
Working for a boss: Risky. Job security is a myth today – you can get downsized anytime, as business today is on an uncertain economic situation.
Working as a freelancer: Risky. With the Internet, your potential clients can now have access to 1,000 others like you. That’s risky.
How about working in particular industry? Ditto. Accounting? Risky. Graphic design? Risky. IT? Risky. Journalism? Risky.
The point I’m trying to make is, you can’t choose a particular career path, profession or industry that bears no risk to you.
So, if everything has its own set of risks, why people avoid entrepreneurship? Perhaps, what fear people most is business failure – and business failures only happen if you are an entrepreneur (make sense, right?)
Business failures suck – or not?
Going out of business, losing money, facing bankruptcy – all doesn’t sound very nice, does it? Those are perhaps why people afraid of business failures.
But then, you must realise that in entrepreneurship, you need to embrace business failures.
You know the infamous stat: 9 out of 10 businesses fail within the first 2 years. That means you need to be ready to fail 9 times before you find one success. Are you ready?
If your answer is yes, read on.
How to befriend business failures
To embrace business failures, you need to have the right mindset – entrepreneurship is all about mindset, after all…
I have some advices from my entrepreneurial journey. Here are some foods for thought – for a healthy entrepreneurial mindset:
1. When you start up, get ready to fail
I’m not telling you to be a pessimistic entrepreneur. I’m telling you to be well-prepared – when you start a business, you need to have safety net, disaster recovery plan, plan B or whatever the name is in your business plan. The idea is to reduce the impact of your failure so that you always be ready for a second, third, fourth, fifth try.
2. When you fail, you want to fail fast
When I fail, I want to fail fast. Why? So that I can pursue the next business opportunities quickly, thus I can achieve success quicker. So, yes – rather than mingling with a dying business, I’d rather close it down or sell it off for pennies quickly so I can avoid getting dragged down emotionally and financially.
3. Your business failures can tell you who you are
The more devastating your business failures, the better for you (and your potential investors) to see what you are made of – are you a quitter or a resilient entrepreneur? Are you a whiner or a winner? Discovering who you are can help you in your personal development endeavours – and in pursuing future business opportunities.
4. Business failure is the best education you can get
I obtained a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) degree in about 7 years ago. Yet, what I learn for my degree completion is nothing compared with the experiences I gained when I was running 2 franchise units and failed miserably. I always see the investment I made for the 2 franchise units as a worthwhile investment in learning how to be a better entrepreneur.
5. Success is like riding a bicycle
When you was a kid, you can’t possibly able to ride a bike on 2 wheels if you didn’t fall on regular basis in trying to do so – just like entrepreneurship; you can’t find business success if you are not falling numerous times and get up each time you fall.
So, will you befriend business failures?
If you asked me, my answer would be yes. How about you – will you accept the fact that entrepreneurial success might requires you to fail numerous times? Do you have enough drive and passion to pursue entrepreneurial success?
Your answer will determine your entrepreneurial journey’s success.
Ivan Widjaya
Befriending business failure.