Being successful is not something that you can achieve so easily. Unfortunately, many people ignore the steps they need to take to reach that success, especially the failures they had to endure. And let’s be honest, there were many failures after which maybe you said to yourself, “I am done with this.” But you found the strength to continue, and now you have your own startup on its path to success. The truth is that we learn more from our failures than our successes, and in this article, you will understand why.
Why do you learn more from failure?
When we achieve something successfully, we tend to neglect the bad parts. Yes, maybe it was tough, and there were a couple of bumps on the road, but you are so happy that you succeeded that you don’t want to focus on anything else but the joy of it. This is completely normal. You should be happy and celebrate your wins. However, how often do you think about what you learned from them? Probably not so often because you just moved to the next goal.
You worked very hard for sure, and you put all your efforts and passion into achieving your goals. But maybe sometimes, things out of your control influenced it – a bit of luck or something else. It is hard to admit that not only our efforts brought us the success we are having, but it shouldn’t be. Being lucky doesn’t necessarily mean that you didn’t work your butt off.
It shouldn’t be hard to talk about our failures too. We can learn a lot from the instances that we failed in and, in this way, avoid it happening again. Many companies are blinded by their success and forget themselves, which leads to their downfall.
We are used to failure because it has happened to us since we were kids. Maybe the first time you encountered it, it was when you were trying to make your first steps. Perhaps you don’t remember it, but you learned to walk based on your failed tries. You might have failed an exam or two in school, but then we sat down with our school books and learned what we missed the first time. The big issue with failure is the feeling of disappointment that we are not meeting someone’s expectations – in most cases, our own. This feeling is indeed tough to overcome.
As an entrepreneur, you are probably even more scared of failure because you just started your own company and didn’t want anything to jeopardize it. Also, your employees depend on you, so you don’t want to let them down. However, not every failure will lead to the end of your company and dream. It might set you back a bit, but it will also be something that will teach you a lot.
If we start thinking about failures as our key to success, our mentality will change its perception of them. Then we won’t be so disappointed that we didn’t achieve something but take it as a lesson on what not to do next time. Repeating the same actions that lead you to success might not work every time because things change, and as we said, it might have been influenced by pure luck. But knowing what to avoid not to fail again is always a great lesson that will teach us what steps we should always avoid.
What do we learn from failure?
There are a couple of key things we learn from failure that will stick with us forever. The first one is that it gives a good reality check. We don’t say you got it easy until now, but maybe you had a lot of luck in your endeavors, and everything worked like magic for you. This might make you feel invincible and believe that everything will work out for you no matter what. But it isn’t true. Not everything is under your control, and a small failure can easily bring you back to earth.
A minor setback is also a great way to learn how to value everything. We usually appreciate everything more after we lose it. It is the same with success, and we value it way more after a couple of failures.
You become more flexible once you don’t succeed in something because you learn that not everything goes according to plan. You are ready to accept that being flexible and adaptive can be even better than trying to stick to a plan without the willingness to change it if needed.
Failure is, in a sense, a new opportunity to do things better. You have a clean slate, and this second chance might be precisely what you need. Take your time, analyze what happened and why, and try again based on those conclusions. If you did your learning, you have a better chance of success.
Thanks to failure, you become more courageous. It didn’t work once, so what could be worse? You already went through hell, probably blaming yourself and thinking there is no way out. But after this initial phase, you see the light at the end of the tunnel. Then you have even more courage to start again and try new tactics. By being braver, you are also becoming stronger. You will find a lot of inner strength to fight with failure and never give up in the face of it.
And maybe the best benefit is that you become very creative and fearless. You are no longer afraid of failure, and you are ready to risk more to reach your goals. But you will measure the risk and find many more creative ways to achieve success. Don’t be afraid to fall, just don’t forget to get up after that. Nothing is final so that you will have your second chance.
Embracing your failures
Failure is not pleasant, and nobody enjoys it, but it is part of life. It can be even more painful when it is something related to your startup that you invested all of your energy in. And no matter how disappointing it is, you shouldn’t give up but continue to push further. Learn as much as you can from it and believe in the silver lining. You are strong and smart enough to turn things around and be successful again.
