When talking (or writing) about business, whether it is starting a new business or improving your existing one, we have to deal with the F word: Failure.
No one likes to fail; yet everyone will do it at least once or twice. Mistakes happen and miscalculations occur- that’s okay. Yes, you heard me. It’s okay to be wrong. In fact, mistakes can lead us to our greatest triumphs.
Study the lives of succesful people and you will find them littered with failures. Thomas Edison said “Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.” And, if you’ve ever made a mistake you know all about the perspiration.
While making mistakes is never fun they can be a sign of future triumph; all you have to do is use the errors to learn. The bigger the error, the greater the growth.
When something goes wrong our first instinct is to cover it up or deflect the blame. I recommend you do the opposite; embrace the problem.
First thing: Solve the problem. Doing this quickly and efficiently, while maintaining a sense of humor, will impress both your clients and your peers. Trust me, In this day and age, admitting to your own limitations is refreshing and unique.
Next: Play detective and determine how the mistake was made. Look at everything that lead to the event and determine what you could have done, said, read, etc. to prevent the problem. Then, change the system; take the class; train the staff; or do whatever it is to make sure this error never happens again.
Finally: Shake it off and move on. You’re not allowed to wallow in guilt. If you were acting with good intentions, with no intent to hurt or mislead anyone: if you have solved the problem; and if you have examined the circumstances which lead to the issue and taken steps to avoid the problem in the future than you are officially absolved of guilt. Betty says “Let it go.”
Does this seem simple to you? If it’s so easy, why aren’t more people taking chances?
This is what Teddy Roosevelt had to say about risk taking:
“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.”
You must take risks (and fail) to get the rewards you deserve. No one is going to hand life to you; you must go out and live it!
