Failure IS an Option

I wrote an article on this very subject, with the same title a few years ago.

And... it was a pretty decent article if I do say so myself!

Then I lost it. Gone. Deleted in error with no backup!

Talk about 'ironic'........

Well, moving forward (hint) - over the years I have come into contact with a vast array of different people from all walks of life. Some extremely rich, then those quite the opposite. Some very well-known - others who will never want their '15 minutes of fame'.

Business people, colleagues, employees, friends...... the list goes on and on.

They ALL (just like you and me) have one thing in common. Failure.

Yep - we are ALL failures at something. Or we have all failed at one to or another..... And it's more than likely we will all fail again at something.

Hands up all of you who have NEVER failed at ANYTHING?

Relationships, work / employment, exams, dieting, keep fit & exercise, decorating, gardening, keeping pets, D.I.Y., money, puzzles, competitions, cooking, gambling, auditions, interviews...and just about everything!

It doesn't have to be a massive 'failure' - sometimes these do happen, but anything which goes wrong, you mess up, you can't do..... Is failure.

Most marriages end up in divorce.

Most new small-businesses in the real world, collapse within their first two years.

Most people trying to make money on the internet - don't.

The KEY here, is what you do when it happens? How do you deal with it? What happens next?

The solution is a simple formula I have been telling people for years. Whether it's friends, clients, staff, peers....... Whether I do it as part of a motivational course, or just straight-forward advice.... The formula is exactly the same.

How you apply the formula can vary from 'Passive Pre-Event Style'.... up to 'Aggressive Post-Event Style.

What am I talking about?

It's like flicking a switch inside you...... from the passive ' I know all the steps'...... to the more aggressive ' I've GOTTA DO IT NOW....'

Have you ever seen the classic comedy film 'Airplane' ?

The Cabin Crew carefully explained all the safety procedures to the passengers.

But when 'disaster strikes' - all hell breaks loose! Everyone panics! All the instructions go out the window!

OK - it was a movie. But the similarities to real-life are commonplace.

We often know what we SHOULD DO - but we find excuses to ignore it.

If you simply 'give up' and do nothing - what are you expecting as a result?

"It wasn't my fault...." ... maybe it wasn't.

"The system doesn't work"..... So what?

"Someone told me to do it"..... and if they told you to jump off a cliff?

"The computer made a mistake"...... oh really?!

"Someone criticised me"...... Get over it.

"I'm just not good enough"...... Choose not to be.

OK - time for a few sayings........ And hey!... these weren't written by someone for no reason!

'Try.....try.....and try again.'

'If you always do what you've always done, you will always get what you've always had'.

I really like that last one - perhaps the 'exact' wording is slightly wrong, but the underlying meaning in rock-solid (and it may take a minute or two understand where it's going).

If you prefer to make excuses and simply quit - fair enough. Your choice.

But if you simply aren't happy with this option..... Then there are 3 main stages you must address.

Firstly, you have to simply accept it. Admit to yourself that you have failed. Sounds easy doesn't it? But in reality it can be far harder than you think.

This part is vital because it can mean a change in attitude. YOURS.

Stop blaming others, making excuses and simply giving up. This can be a major change in mind-set, but is important before you can go to the next step. Accept that 'it' hasn't worked. 'It' went wrong. 'It' is a dead-end. Don't personalise / humanise it. The 'acceptance' stage normally cannot be successful until the initial anger of the failure has subsided.

Next - another key step is to Learn from it.

Analyse the situation. Review what happened. Make notes. Discuss it with people / friends / colleagues.... But do so clearly and with an open-mind. Try to develop new methods, routines, rules.... which will avoid a recurrence of what happened last time.

Note - if during the 'learning' stage, you start to point the finger at others, or blame the system etc., this means you haven't successfully passed the first stage - Acceptance.

Once you have learned from it - the final stage is simple. MOVE ON.

Move forward - don't keep looking back, don't let things hold you back. Because once you have accepted it, learned from it - then nothing should be able to hold you back.

Take what you have learned, apply it, use it - get on with it!

A little warning here. Sometimes it simply won't work. You will get through the stages, do everything right - only to fail again. If this happens, just go back to step 2 - and start again.

Remember one of those sayings earlier? ..... Try, try and try again.

SO, the formula is simply.

F + A + L + M.

Fail.

Accept it.

Learn from it.

Move on.

You can use your own variant to suit your needs. And this applies to business (both online and offline), plus everything in life.

However, do you remember the second 'saying' from earlier on?

'If you always do what you've always done, you will always get what you've always had'.

Successful people - whether they are millionaire business people, or perhaps those who seem to be 'lucky in love', to people who overcome adversity, injury, accident or disability -all have one thing in common.

They don't quit when the going gets tough.

They accept, learn and move on from failure.

There is a phrase.... 'Failure is not an option'.

I disagree. Failure isn't something you should strive for (obviously) but if you know how to deal with it when it arises, then it's not necessarily the end of the World!

© Copyright 2005 - All Rights Reserved worldwide.

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About Gary Durkin

Gary Durkin
Founder of the Internet Advice Center®
http://www.InternetAdviceCenter.com

Gary has more than a decade of offline international business success behind him, and has been doing business online for 6 years.

If you would like to join thousands of subscribers to his newsletter 'Delivering Success' - send a blank email to deliveringsuccess@kioskcities.ws


And here is another random article you might be interested in...

The Business Autopsy: A Fact Of Life

Last week we discussed the importance of performing an autopsy on a dead business. No, I haven't been watching too many of those wonderfully graphic, TV forensic investigation shows. The reason I recommend you do a business autopsy is to uncover the exact reasons why the business died. This is valuable information that can not only heal feelings of personal failure, but also better prepare you for the pitfalls of business should you ever take the plunge again.

Starting a business is never easy and the odds of your success or failure are about even money. The fact is, approximately half of all small businesses fail within the first four years. And a large percentage of those failures occur within the first year. These are the statistics that keep many entrepreneurs awake at night. Like Sisyphus, always pushing that boulder to the top of the hill only to have it tumble back to the bottom each time, you never know when you're going to lose your grip on your business and have it tumble back over you.

OK, so far in this column I have managed to squeeze in references to modern American television and ancient Greek mythology. Enough highbrow beating around the bush. Perform the autopsy and learn from it. Only by knowing the real reasons your business died can you identify and hopefully stave off those maladies before they take you down next time, if there is a next time. And if you're a true entrepreneur there will be a next time, trust me on this.

There are many reasons why businesses fail, but according to a recent survey by U.S. Bank, the majority of business failures can be attributed to three reasons: bad management, bad financial planning, and bad marketing.

Bad management comes in many forms. The survey showed that seventy-eight percent of the business failures examined were due in part to the lack of a well-developed business plan and a business owner who had no business being in the business he was in. In other words, the business owner did not have an adequate knowledge or a thorough understanding of the business he had chosen to start. This is why software entrepreneurs like me don't start shoe stores. I have feet, I wear shoes. That's not enough to qualify me to go into the shoe business.

Next, seventy-three percent of the business failures in the survey were also manned by owners with rose colored calculators. These business owners over-estimated revenue projections (the number of expected sales) and under-estimated the burn rate (the amount of money required to sustain the business per month).

It gets better. Seventy percent of the failed businesses in the study were led by entrepreneurs who were in denial regarding their own competence, or more to the point, their own incompetence. These business owners either didn't recognize or chose to ignore their own entrepreneurial shortcomings. These entrepreneurs also did not seek assistance from others who might have made up for their inadequacies. It's sometimes hard to ask for help when you are supposed to be the one with all the answers.

Believe me, I know.

The final contributing factor to the death of sixty-three percent of the businesses who died from bad management was that the owners had no relevant or applicable business experience.

Bad financial planning was the second reason sited by the survey as to why most businesses fail. In business, it's always about money. According to the U.S. Bank study, eighty-two percent of the business failures studied reported poor cash flow management as a contributing factor to the death of the business.

Seventy-nine percent of the businesses were inadequately funded, and seventy-seven percent miscalculated the cost of doing business. In other words, they failed to take into account all of the costs involved when setting the price for their products.

Let's move on to my favorite subject: bad marketing. You've heard me preach this sermon before. You can have the greatest product in the world, but if your marketing efforts are inadequate or ineffective you will end up with a warehouse full of the greatest product that no one in the world has ever heard of.

The study showed that bad marketing was a contributing factor in the death of sixty-four percent of the businesses surveyed. Many of these misguided entrepreneurs either minimized the importance of marketing and promotion or ignored it totally.

A vital part of marketing is knowing who your competition is and always knowing what they are up to. The entrepreneur who ignores his competition is a fool (gee, was that too harsh?) and is always destined to fail, as proven by the fifty-five percent of the dead businesses in the survey who either didn't even know who their competition was or simply chose to ignore the competition altogether.

Here's a nice hole in the sand for you, sir.

Please insert your head...

Another mistake made by forty-seven percent of the deceased businesses was that they relied on just one or two customers for the bulk of revenues. This is a common mistake made by many business owners who devote all their energy to one huge client. What they don't seem to understand is that if that one customer goes away, so does most of their revenue.

When performing your business autopsy you might identify other contributing factors that were beyond your control, such as a down economy, the lack of qualified employees, new government regulations that negatively affect the way you must do business, the failure of a strategic partner, etc..

There will always be things you can't control. The key to business success is to keep control of those things you can and do everything you can to prepare for those things you can't.

Next time we'll discuss a few things you should and should not do to help ensure your business success.

Here's to your success.

Tim Knox tim@dropshipwholesale.net For information on starting your own online or eBay business, visit http://www.dropshipwholesale.net