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Failing startups happen, but you can power through it.



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Failing startups happen, but you can power through it.

If you're an entrepreneur, you're likely going to fail at one point or another.  What you do after that failure is what defines you as a business owner.  Dropping a business model or marketing campaign doesn't make you bad at something, it's actually the opposite, you noticed something wasn't working and you switched gears.  You'd be amazed at how many people will dump money into a marketing campaign or PPC campaign to try and fix it rather than attack it from a different angle. 

Failures should be seen as a learning experience and not a stain on your business resume, and here's why...


Failure is all over the place
Almost every successful entrepreneur you run into will have at least one story of how they failed and didn't let it keep them down.  Have you ever hear of Tony Robbins or Elon Musk?  Probably.  Did you know that they've failed dozens of times before ever getting something together that was successful?  Hell, they still fail today but they see it as a learning experience, and you should to.

Elon Must actually loses investors just as quick as he gains them because of his failures.  He doesn't lose much when he does fail because it's not on a grand scale, but investors want to see success every time.  The investors that trust Elon are the ones who will be billionaires in the next 25 years.  I actually wish I had the money to invest in Elon's business plans because you bet your ass I would be buying up as much as I could Failing startups happen, but you can power through it.

You never hear anything about the person who failed and then crawled into a cave to hide away from everyone.  You hear about the person who overcame 1, 2 or even 100 failures to finally get something together that made them a success.  The 100 failures may have been the 100 pieces of the 101 piece puzzle that you needed to put together before you could make it complete.  You never know when you're strike gold so you need to keep your head up and fight through the negative times Failing startups happen, but you can power through it.

We've all have negative reviews, had charge backs, missed an opportunity or had some bad press about our websites.  It happens, but you need to power through all of it if you want to be successful.  I know that I missed one massive opportunity when I wanted to set up a website and didn't have the time to pitch it to one of the guys I usually partner up with.  About 6 months later he launched a website that I was thinking about pitching to him and now I don't own part of it.  He actually makes around $2,500 a day from this website, but I can't get down about it because it's not mine.  I had the idea, and I didn't pitch it because I wouldn't have had time if we did work on it together.  I now pitch him every idea I have even if I don't have the time, because I never know what will be the next big thing Failing startups happen, but you can power through it.


Take control of your failure
There are a few ways you can overcome the negative thoughts you have running through your head when you fail, and I'll list them below.  You'll need to take control of your failure and not let it control you, if you know what I mean lol.

  • Psychology: You'll need to overcome your fears of failure and using something along the lines of cognitive behavioral therapy could be what you need.  Basically you'll learn that failure isn't what you are and that you can work past it to become something great in the future.  If your failure is due to psychological reasons, then you're the only person who can work that out.  A therapist can only push you in the right direction.
  • Identifying The Reason:  Figure out the exact reason for the failure and attack it head on.  Now if the reason is because of a person, please don't attack them lol.  Instead, you can work it out with them and help them learn what they did wrong instead of fighting them, which is never a good thing to do.
  • Tell The Story:  If you're working for yourself and fail a few times it's not a big deal.  If you're running a business and you're looking to bring in an investor, you will need to outline what happened in your failures so that they can get a better understanding of what happened and how you fixed it.  An investor wants to see that you learned from your failure and not that you just stopped in your tracks when you hit a wall or a problem.
  • It Doesn't Really Matter:  At the moment of your failure I'm sure it hurt you emotionally.  But when you look back on it in a year or 10, you will realize that the little failure that had you locked in your room, didn't really matter.

Just remember, like I mentioned earlier, failure is all around us.  It doesn't matter if it's due to the economy or you actually messed something up so bad that you had to shut down.  What you do after those things is what defines you as an entrepreneur and business owner.

The only thing that really matters after you fail is if you pick yourself back up and keep going with your entrepreneur ideas.  If you can work through a failure, you're stronger than most people out there and you will be successful soon enough Failing startups happen, but you can power through it.


The only real failure is when you decide to stop trying.


Failing isn't great, but they can make you look good
When being an entrepreneur, you'll run into your failures sooner or later.  It's a fact that a little more than 50% of startups will fail within their first 4 years and another 20% will fail in a few years after that.  So that means roughly 70% of businesses will fail within 7 years of starting up.  The really big downside to this is that if you're one of those business owners who makes it to the 7 year mark, you're likely investing 100% of yourself into the company and it will feel like a killing blow if your company goes under.  These are the type of business owners that need to focus and get back on their feet.

The good thing about this is that you have 7 years of business experience and you can easily start something else up.  You've built up connections and know how to incorporate already so getting back on your feet should be easier than the business owners who started up and failed within the first year.

Investors will sometimes be put off by everything in your pitch, but that's when you can go into your what you know and how you overcame failures to achieve success.  Investors will want to hear about your screw ups because they want to know everything about you, not just your highlights.  They want to know that if you're hitting some hard times that you will power through it and make everything better than it was before.



Remember to follow me!
https://www.seoclerks.com/user/Razzy


Thanks!

Razzy

Comments

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Authord
Failing is like a build up to success, failure is just like a furnace, in which a steel will be able to pass through in order to become what it's needs to become. Some fail and give up at the moment, although it's not easy to pass through the shackles of failure, but when you fail you pick yourself up, find out why you failed,improve on it and repeat. and you will finally succeed, It's not easy but once you power through it you will have a story to tell. And the feeling of success will cloud your mind, that you will forget what you went through.
Today might be cloudy but Tomorrow will be bright.



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JoeMilford
Authord,
I like your metaphor here of the steel being tempered or transformed in the furnace. It brings to mind the old cliche "trial by fire". Yes, failure does burn, but your post reminds us that we can take that fire and utilize it to grow and change. I guess I could go too far and references a phoenix rising from the ashes, but find that, in many of my own failures, I have learned a great deal and transformed in an almost alchemical way from who I was before the failure to the person with greater knowledge and wisdom in the aftermath and the recovery.



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DarthHazard
That's a great way to describe it. Like I said in my comment, I think the best thing that you can do when you fail is to learn from your mistakes. By learning from the mistakes and errors that you made, you can aim for success by attempting to do better. Like you said, giving up is probably the worst thing you can do.



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Corzhens
I like that last line where you said that today may be cloudy but tomorrow may be bright. That is very inspirational to me because failures come and go. What’s important is for us to pick up the pieces and start again as if nothing happened. I admire people who can do that as if they are supermen who has no feelings and emotions because I don’t see them looking dejected amid the failures.



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DarthHazard
The most important thing is to never let failure beat you. Failure can happen to anyone. I'm sure there are thousands of millionaires or even billionaires out there that have had failed businesses or plans yet things have worked out for them in the end. Never give up. If one plan fails, then try another or try to find out how to make that first plan work. The best thing is to learn from the mistakes you made and that can make you better



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JoeMilford
Isn't it true that we mainly learn from our failures? I know that the potential to learn is always there in good times, but I have learned so much more over the years from what I've done wrong here and there than from the things I did which won me praise or accolades and came easy. You can work your fingers to the bone on something and still fail, so it is not always about the the effort you put in. It is a constant learning curve, especially in freelancing and in any aspect of a technology of Internet based business venture. I have had initial projects and ideas totally flop, and sometimes heartbreakingly so because of how much I or a team put into it, but you just have to get back up, dust yourself off, and keep going.



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Pixie06
Some lessons that I have learnt from failures are that they help us to learn where we went wrong so that we do make the same mistakes again. We must not get discouraged when we fail but instead we must get up and fight so as to be successful. When I started selling online it took me more than a year before I started getting a decent number of customers. I never thought that I would be that successful as an online seller. I always try to provide a good service to my customers and I think this is what encourages them to buy from me.



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JoeMilford
Pixie06,
I totally understand what you are saying here, and pertaining to working online, and the learning curve which comes with it, I started, from time to time, to already consider myself a failure, even though I am so new to this; however, frequenting these forums and listening to what people have to say and learning through the professed experiences of others has demonstrated to me that the only way I could could become a true failure is to give up altogether. We are all gonna make mistakes, but like you said above, the key to it is not making the same mistakes over and over again. Not doing so is definitely a sign of personal and professional growth.



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overcast
I think failing fast is the key. One has to fail fast and learn where to avoid mistakes in future. That practice is going to help a lot. And people are going to make decisions better in future. So more mistakes you make. And do thing, the easier it is going to be for you. And another thing about startups is that you have to show some risk taking capacity. If that is shown then surely it would not be hard to keep up with the mindset of wining. That's the thing I am noticing with the startup these days.



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augusta
Failing the first time in anything is not a failure to me.I strongly believe is a learning process and of course failing in a business is not the end of the world.Look out for the lessons learned and try to make the best out of it.

Like anything one has failed, try to build on what you have already.check why it failed, what you did wrong ,check out the people you had worked with, do you need to drop them and all of that.But basically, find out the root of the failure and address that to avoid repetition



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JoeMilford
augusta,
You said "failing the first time in anything is not a failure to me". I think that this is so true. We all face a learning curve when trying new things. I think that a lot of people give up to soon when they have some initial disappointments and failures, and if these people would have stuck to their guns and just pushed forward, who knows what the future could have help or promised for them?



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kgord
Yep, failures are everywhere, there is no dishonor in failing..but if you stop trying, that is probably the worst thing. As long as you learn from your failures and try to do things differently you should be able to do it much better next time. It is just one of the ways you can succeed in your life.



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Tronia
I agree with everything that you've written because I have experienced failure many times but the thing that sets me apart from some other people is that failure makes me stronger. I tend to gain experience by failing or making mistakes. It is always important to learn and reflect - "Why did this fail?", "How can I prevent it from happening in the future?". I have a friend that when he failed his start-up business he completely gave up and got a regular job as a salesman. He just didn't stay determined and passionate enough.



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jpyy
Failing is probably inevitable at some point. Nonetheless, we should try to prevent it as much as we can. One way we can do that is via education. In other words, the people who have done their homework won't fall for pitfalls which drown others. For instance, someone who doesn't know about shady traffic might buy a million bot views for 100 dollars. OK, that's a lost 100 USD.



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PinkTurtle
I agree, someone once told me no one learn from success, you need to fail to learn, then try again and again until you make it. Identifying the reason I agree is the best way and then just moving on! and do things different!



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Corzhens
Taking control of your failure is a good advice. Yeah, it is mostly psychological in the first place that’s why successful business people would always say that it is all right to fail but what’s important is to stand up and do it again. Of course, one of the most important points in failure is learning from it. Why did you fail and how did you fail. Note down and everything to serve as guide for the next time.



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