I usually tell people ‘nothing is permanent in life‘. As the ancient Greek philosopher would say: ‘everything flows’. Nothing remains the same. And no, you will never be able to cross the same river twice.
So, how come so many entrepreneurs do not restart their business activities immediately after they fail? I have met many powerful and active men who got mentally crippled after their empires collapsed. They became unable to focus, pick up the pieces and rebuild what they lost.
In my experience, these failed cases are the norm and not the exception. Very few managed to conquer their own mental hindrances and got back onto the saddle. These few actually became even more successful than before, since they learned from past mistakes. You probably have to get bankrupt at least once in this lifetime, before you are able to appreciate your strengths and use them to your advantage.
So, what happens in an entrepreneur’s mind when s/he fails spectacularly?
1. S/he probably feels guilty for his/her past decisions. These decisions obviously affected his/her family, friends, colleagues, employees and others. It is difficult to accept that one is human and makes mistakes, if the lives of so many people are at stake.
2. The fear of future failure intensifies. Such a fear is bad enough when you go into business for the first time. After you fail once, twice or more the fear becomes more intense. Only strong minds can work through this emotion and get on the other side.
3. The entrepreneur also may feel that s/he lost his/ her reputation or air of success. This feeling hurts greatly the ego of the entrepreneur and inhibits the decision-making process.When the opinions of someone’s peers, colleagues and family matter more than it should, then a lot of negative beliefs arise: ‘I am not good/intelligent/persistent/strong/etc. enough to achieve my goal’!
Lean startup methodology is trying to address this problem. The motto is ‘fail fast, fail soon’. This way the focus is considerably shifted. The entrepreneur’s aim is not to succeed but to learn from his/her failures.Thus, failing often would indicate that the learning process is intensified. That is, of course, if the entrepreneur is learning from past mistakes and does not simply repeat them.
This methodology certainly carries us through fear to the other, the brighter side. However, there are still pitfalls to be avoided. For example, the above motto should not be the justification of failure! The aim is not to fail! The aim is to succeed! And this should always be at the back of your mind.
If you shift your focus from success to failure, you will reap exactly what you asked for. Instead, you should keep your eye on the ball, while you let the occasional failures become a lesson in business building. The failures are not to be worshipped. They should be taken seriously into account, while you strive for success.
For more information on lean startup methodology, you could take a look at my other blog posts.
How Can you Come Up with a New Business Idea?
Best Social Media for Lean Startups
Why Personal Branding is Essential for Lean Startups?
Direct Benefits from Customer Development
Common Excuses to Avoid Customer Development
Simple Pricing Strategies for your Products or Services, the Lean Way
The No. 1 Mistake New Entrepreneurs Make
“How to Get 10000 of Facebook Likes”. Is this the Lean Way to Start a Business?
Michael Epps Utley
Great article, but I strongly dislike the title. I have found that most people who are open to lean thinking (those who need improvement of some kind) are also very much in a state of change. In times of change, it can be dangerous to focus on ideas that speak of doom.
We are a lean marketing shop experience some really exciting growth. But we modify the terminology to seek to “break it” rather than “fail.” The all-or-nothing concept of failure is really the wrong idea in the larger context of finding the right combinations of ideas and resources.
admin
So, the title really worked! I was aiming at Shocking my audience into reading it! Thank you for the feedback. I cound not agree with you more!
Carrie Ballard
Nice. We are shocked at the title. Well, not too shocked since I have become used to the concept of ‘failing’ in the Lean Startup meaning. We failed. Where we failed (!) was we kept working at one approach that was not going to work for us. Then we did that again. We spent 18 months working on things that were Not Going To Work. Now we never fail to fail fast.
I like ‘break it’ very much too.
admin
I can see you got a lesson well learned! That makes you a wild success already!