Our friends at Lighthouse Innovation in Canberra have this great article on their website. Check them out for more information.
Failure is an inside job
‘Fail early, fail often, but always fail forward’ – these
are the words of author John C. Maxwell and should be the mantra for all
startup businesses.
While you can’t control everything that happens to you, you
can control your attitude and be open to learning from your mistakes. So, when
you receive less than favourable feedback about your startup idea, your pitch
session is a fizzer or your funding application is denied, these are some
things to keep in mind:
1. Equip yourself by understanding what makes business ideas
fail
There’s a lot of information about business models in books,
online, at conferences and from expert advisors. When you launch a new business
you’re putting a lot on the line – your money, your time, your reputation and
very often your relationships, so it’s important to give yourself the best
chance of success. Investing the time upfront to refine your idea and improve
areas of weakness can save you a lot of heartache down the track. There are also online diagnostic tools like
Bizlab (http://bizlab.lighthouseinnovation.com.au/) that provide feedback on
the strengths and weaknesses of your idea. Learn from these and make the
necessary changes.
2. Redefine failure and success
Think of mistakes as lessons and just like in school, you
get to repeat a lesson until it’s learned. Sometimes you need a painful wake-up
call to learn the lesson, but you’ll know you’ve learned it when your actions
change and you see new and promising results in your business.
3. Don’t be too quick to declare a failure – keep the bigger
picture in mind
One of the biggest challenges facing startups with
disruptive ideas is that initially nobody gets them. Be careful not to judge a
big idea a failure too quickly, look at initial rejections within the context
of the bigger picture.
4. Both success and failure are a journey
The process of business success includes planning, informed
decision-making, risk management and identifying opportunities. Equally the process
of failure involves ignoring the warning signs, failure to act, poor planning
and insufficient risk management.
5. Mistakes are not a permanent stain
When you’re pushing the boundaries nobody gets it right the
first time. Henry Ford had two business failures before he started the Ford
Motor Company and J.K Rowling’s Harry Potter manuscript was rejected by 12
publishing houses before it was eventually accepted.
Being able to fail quickly and recover from setbacks is an
important skill for entrepreneurs. Sometimes the best way to look at your
business idea is as a collection of experiments – some will pan out and others
won’t.
