I recently spilled by guts on Kimanze Constable’s blog. It humbling and introspective. I hated it…but I needed to say it.
For the truth is, in life failure is inevitable.
Sure it hurts, it’s made fun of, it’s pushed to the side to find the “success stories,” and its generally not welcome.
But it’s unavoidable. Especially for the entrepreneur. But failure, when leveraged correctly, is actually a good thing.
What exactly is an Entrepreneur?
Before I say why… let me explain.
The word “entrepreneur” is derived from an old French word “entreprendre” which means “undertake.” So an entrepreneur is someone who undertakes some venture, enterprise, or idea and assumes responsibility for the outcome. So in reality, a true entrepreneur is NOT solely in the business field.
An entrepreneur can be…
- An author wanting to change the world
- A speaker wanting to make a difference
- A musician working to be famous
- An artist striving to be known
- A leader wanting to take an organization from good to great
- An athlete yearning for greatness
- Or a college dropout wanting to become a business mogul
The main criteria is this: taking the path of most resistance and assuming responsibility for the outcome.
A List of “Failures”
But no matter how great the entrepreneur…they’ve had failures. In fact, what makes them “great” is that they’ve failed MORE times than everyone else!
So here’s a list of some of the great “failures” the world has ever seen:
- Michael Arrington had four business failures before he succeeded with TechCrunch
- R. H. Macy failed seven times before his NY store caught on
- Michael Jordan failed more than he succeeded: lost over 3000 games, missed over 9000 shots at goal, and 26 times he missed the winning shot
- Robert Kiyosaki failed in his first business and ended up flat broke and being hounded by creditors
- Matt Wilson failed by deviating from his mission at Under30Ceo.com and had to take on an enormous rebranding campaign, had to relearn their audience, and regain credibility.
- Henry Ford filed for bankruptcy with his first company– Detroit Automobile Company
- Lady GaGa had doors slammed in her face, DJ’s who didn’t want to play her records, music execs who thought she was nuts, and she was was signed to Def Jam Records but then was dropped after 3 months…before she sold more than 15 million albums, 51 million singles worldwide and became one of Forbes most powerful celebrities
And so on.
I do question the role education has in creating entrepreneurs… but I can never question the role the “school of hard knocks” has.
What role has failure played in your life?
This post was written by...
Michael – who has written 77 posts on The Simple Strategies for Startups Blog.
Michael is the an author, blogger, and speaker, Why not give me a shout on Google
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
Failure shows your doing something. Really though, those who don’t fail are not getting outside of their comfort zone, rising to new challenges, or making forward movements. Those are are successful know the importance of doing, failing, learning from it, and then getting back up to try again. I like your list. Quality stuff!
Absolutely! I always tell people I’d rather live with the regret of trying and failing than the regret of not trying at all. Thanks Dan!
Don’t forget Abraham Lincoln (not because of my namesake) but he failed numerous times before he was Elected President of the United States. I think failure is a process that we all have to go through. Its just a known fact that some people fail and never get back up. The strong willed individual always gets back up and does it again or re-invents themselves..
I like the individuals you mentioned, Awesome!
At least I feel good to know I’m in great company lol! Thanks Lincoln!
I wondered if you were named after him Lincoln! Great leader to be named after.
You’re right, he failed many times and look at all the good he brought about? He is someone great to aspire to.
Absolutely! If there’s anybody who knows about failure: it’s president Lincoln. And yes Lincoln does have that “presidential look” to him lol!
Great post…although I would add that the most important part about failure is “learning from it” (just like dan notes here).
What the post forgets to highlight is that, every time one of these great leaders fail, they don’t simply move on – they take it in, analyze why/how they failed and make sure they don’t make the same mistake twice.
That’s probably the best way to think about entrepreneurship in my humble opinion. Fail if you must, but learn from it and try avoiding making the same mistake twice. Businesses are based on success, not failure.
Best
Bruno
@brunoaziza
http://www.linkedin.com/in/brunoaziza
Absolutely! Failing and failing fast! I agree…and that was a mistake I used NOT to make. I would just fail, cry, lick my wounds, and move on. Not realizing how much lessons there were in the failures. Thanks for reminding me of that Bruno!
I think doing what you mentioned allows them to be successful in the future. Great points Bruno.
I read this on Monday, I thought I had posted but maybe I got distracted before I got to post it. Sorry, this is a great post. I really like this sentence, “taking the path of most resistance and assuming responsibility for the outcome.”
One of my hero’s is Thomas Edison – “I haven’t failed, I’ve found 10,000 ways that don’t work” regarding the light bulb
Thanks TC!
It seems like a lot of people really like that sentence for some reason…I dont know. Thomas Edison is in a class all by himself…10000 times! Wow! He puts a lot of us to shame
Some three years ago, my husband and I went into a business deal that went burst. I mean spectacular public burst! It was not a pretty season and we are still picking up some pieces. Our biggest lesson? Have everything lined up on PAPER. Contracts are powerful.
.
p.s trying to subscribe to your blog but not able to, am getting feedback that my email is invalid
I’m sorry about that…I’ll get on it right away.
Wow! I’m sorry about the business deal…but like you said…you learned something from it. I praying that you guys see success from the failure!
I agree Michael. The secret to success is to get up one more time than you fall down.
That’s all we can really do in this life Paul! Thanks for sharing your thoughts
{ 5 trackbacks }