Hi there! I can’t believe it’s been a week already.
Today I’ve been reflecting on my failures in life. Trust me, I’ve got more than I would like to admit. My shit hit the fan too many times.
Definitely more times than I would like.
And yet, here I am, trying again, because the day I stop trying and failing will be the day I’m out of this world, and I hope it will be quite some time from now.
Failures taught me more than any degree
Failures are great teachers.
No, I’m not talking about the usual “at least you tried,” or “you get closer to succeed,” although I believe in those.
I talk about the big lessons behind every try.
See, every single step we took in life led us to be exactly where we are now.
We live in that beautiful cross between the lessons we learned, the friends we met, the dreams we have, and the dreams we achieved.
Maybe that unpaid internship helped you learn how a company works or how to crush it in an interview, or maybe you met your spouse today.
We are the consequences of our past, and with every single step we take today, we are building our future.
Entrepreneurs get addicted to failing
That’s why you see big businessmen and women committing mistakes or even losing everything… only to stand up and try again.
Failures in entrepreneurship mean a lot. They help us learn how to deal with frustration, how to perfect our market research techniques, sales experience, or pay our taxes.
Books are great to learn without risk, without testing the waters, but they are not realistic. They don’t evolve with time.
When I was studying economics, every single study started with preconditions, the starting point was a world where all variables are predictable and stable, so we could see how the change in one would affect the others.
We would start with ridiculous assumptions such as, “Suppose the market is stable, there’s full employment, and no inflation. What would happen if the price of petrol rises?”
Conditions that would never exist, making the conclusions irrelevant.
That’s why the traditional joke is, “An economist is someone who will tell you tomorrow why what they predicted yesterday didn’t occur today.”
You need real-life conditions, and that is risky. But also the best life lesson no book can teach.
Entrepreneurs ground ideas so they can root and flourish
Everybody has a million-dollar idea hidden in a corner of their brains. Some of them even play a little bit with it, “Wouldn’t it be nice if…?” Some go further and do some research about it.
Entrepreneurs are the only ones who take ideas from the realm of dreams and pull them down to the ground. They dare to give them shape and give them the try most people don’t bother with.
They choose to learn the hard way. And, let me tell you, lessons are brutal in what the hipsters call “the university of life.” They take our time, money, energy, and sometimes even our will to start another business.
But once an entrepreneur, always one.
It’s difficult for us to sit behind a desk and do as we are told. If we take a job, it’s because it’s creative enough to be an intellectual challenge for us.
This is what a serial entrepreneur looks like
My friend
wrote on LinkedIn:All my businesses failed to be profitable.
At age 28, I started an artificial jewelry business.
Imitating a friend who had a successful jewelry stall in a busy shopping center, I bought jewelry from India and tried to sell it at a local school fete. I barely recovered my money.
At age 37, I got into the real estate business. That was the year Australia experienced its worst recession. Needless to say, I didn’t sell a single house.
At age 41 I established a network marketing business with a reputed company. I spent thousands of dollars setting it up and advertising it.
I even went part-time at my job letting go of half the salary for six months.
After giving it my heart and soul for six years, I had to give it up.
For years, I saw myself as a failure.
Then one day, thinking about them from a different perspective, I realized, those were not failures.
They were the stepping stones for bigger and better things in my life.
From the jewelry business, I learned how markets worked. I learned more by doing it and failing at it than I would have by succeeding at it.
From the real-estate business, I learned about negotiations and my local housing market.
I saved thousands of dollars down the track when we bought our house and several investment properties.
From network marketing, I learned confidence in presenting ideas, self-mastery and people management skills. They helped me win leadership roles in my job.
I owe a lot of what I became in life to my network marketing business mentors.
The monetary gains are not the only gains you should seek from endeavors you take.
You learn more from failing than you can from succeeding.
I can’t agree more.
So go out and fail. Make that idea happen. Only time will tell if it was a dream or a nightmare, but rest assured you will learn invaluable lessons which will make you a real business badass in the future.
Just go for it.
With love,
Carmen
PS. Neera has a great newsletter on this platform. I recommend you have a look if you want to be a better writer, which is the skill #1 any entrepreneur needs to master.
PPS. Please, give some love to this post by clicking on its heart ❤️ it will help other entrepreneurs find this newsletter. Thank you 🤗
Do you know anyone who could need to read this post? Spread the love by clicking here:
Yes! Embrace failure. It will lead you in the right direction.
I believe there is something inherently rooted deep within those of us who choose to chase entrepreneurship over and over again despite setbacks. My dad, his brother, my cousin and both of my brothers ran their own businesses. I believe my mom would have too had it been a different generation. It’s a passion that requires feeding. Like you said, when you have the desire, mistakes are stepping stones to get us to the next level and not failures.