Not so long ago, failing as an entrepreneur wasn\u2019t very well perceived. You simply didn\u2019t speak about it. It was considered a better option to work for someone else your entire life than trying out entrepreneurship and facing failure.<\/p>\n
The tide has slowly turned these past few years, and entrepreneurial failure has become less and less taboo. Then, it became a star. Failure is now praised as a driver to learn key lessons during an entrepreneurial project. Entrepreneurs and start-up coaches all agree that failure is the starting point to business success.<\/p>\n
At first glance, you\u2019d think that fear of failure in entrepreneurship would have greatly diminished in the past years. But it\u2019s actually the other way around. In the past 15 years, fear of entrepreneurial failure has increased by 12% in the general population (GEM, 2016). While failure is no longer taboo today, that doesn\u2019t mean it scares aspiring entrepreneurs any less.<\/p>\n
Knowing that fear of failure is what stops most people from becoming entrepreneurs, it\u2019s important to continue to reduce the stress associated it. That battle is far from over.<\/p>\n
While stories of valuable failures exist aplenty, I\u2019ve decided to introduce the phenomenon on another lens entirely. Although it\u2019s good to know that a failure won\u2019t kill you, it\u2019s also important to know that failure can actually contribute to success. We\u2019ll therefore see how failure can be valuable in entrepreneurship. Why do we speak to it in a positive light? Why is it necessary to fail?<\/p>\n
The first question to ask ourselves is this: what does it mean to fail on an entrepreneurial level, per se?<\/em> Let\u2019s check out its definition according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary:<\/p>\n \u201cFailure: omission of occurrence or performance;\u00a0specifically:\u00a0a\u00a0failing<\/em>\u00a0to perform a duty or expected action; lack of success:\u00a0 a failing in business\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Doesn\u2019t really invoke anything positive, does it? By definition, failure is a negative thing. It\u2019s in fact the opposite of success. The word failure therefore has quite a negative connotation. Yet, in entrepreneurship, failure is simply part of the process. It\u2019s actually not negative; in fact, it\u2019s an inevitable reality.<\/p>\n From the first tentative steps of a business project, an entrepreneur is destined to come across all sorts of challenges. Whether it\u2019s the product, operations, marketing initiatives and tech solutions, entrepreneurs will face small, medium and big failures.<\/p>\n Knowing that fact, is \u201cfailure\u201d really the right word to use to define these challenges an entrepreneur will face along the way? Wouldn\u2019t hurdle, obstacle, reorientation, inefficiency or iteration better describe these challenges?<\/p>\n In entrepreneurship, there is a difference between small and big failures. For example, an inefficient marketing campaign would constitute a small failure, while bankruptcy would generally be considered a big one. We can therefore allow ourselves to rank failures so we can take a step back and look at them in a constructive way. A failing marketing campaign does not mean a failing business project. It\u2019s rather the failed initiative among many others within a project that\u2019s still alive and well.<\/p>\n Now, here are my questions to you: Are small and big failures linked? Do they influence each other? Does a small failure increase or decrease the probability of a bigger failure in the future?<\/p>\n Let\u2019s go back to the failed marketing campaign example. Let\u2019s assume you\u2019ve invested 2\u00a0000\u00a0$ in this campaign and it didn\u2019t generate any sales. It\u2019s an almost certainty that you\u2019d consider it a failure. And that\u2019s completely normal!<\/p>\n That said, a step back will allow you this see this episode as nothing more than a learning opportunity. More importantly, the lesson you take away will be a key factor for you to avoid a bigger failure in the future, namely an even more costly but still ineffective marketing campaign, a decrease in clients or even, ultimately, insolvency for your business.<\/p>\nSmall failures and big failures<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Small failures lead you away from big failures<\/strong><\/h3>\n