The Important Merits of Failure

As human beings, the word failure strikes a chord with all of us. All of us will experience failure at some point in our lives, but a true mark of success is how well you can embrace failure when it hits and become a stronger person as a result of the experience. Many of us can turn failure into success however hard it may prove to be. Here is some advice on moving forward in business without the fear of failure to burden your mind.

Failure is a learning experience

Yes, it may be one of the oldest clichés in the book but most clichés are usually spawned because they are right. Don’t just take my word for it. A study in 2009 by Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck assessed the brainwaves of a number of subjects with growth mind-sets and fixed mind-sets to see how they coped with failure. The participants who showed that they were willing to learn and take on new challenges showed that failure triggered the same neurons in the brain which are associated with learning. Antoine Bechara, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of Southern California summed up the results by stated that it “comes down to survival” and that our brains are open to the notion of failure in order to learn and develop as a species.

Forecast Future growth

Forecasting is all about steering your business or personal ship through rocky waters by mapping out past successes and failures. By assessing these past endeavors, you can then move forward into tried and tested pastures with reassurance.

A social Boost

A new business plan needs a whole new set of contacts to fuel your business activities. In negative circumstances, it can be easy to retire away from social pursuits and avoid business related activities. This negative attitude will only prove to be counterproductive and potentially harmful to your well being as well as future business plans. Get out and get involved by attending networking seminars, using social media platforms and getting in touch with old clients and business leads.

Inspiration

Over the years, plenty of businesses have bounced back from bankruptcy. Many of their stories are now documented online for others to learn from. One such case is the video streaming darling, Netflix. In 2011, Netflix’s reputation was badly damaged thanks to their joint venture with Qwikster. In the plan, Netflix was only kept for streaming business, so when a customer wanted to rent a DVD, they were sent to a completely different website in order to control online traffic. After many customer complaints about the poorly structured service, Netflix disassociated themselves with Qwikster, apologized, and bounced back to a 33.2 million customer base in 2013. Some surprising individuals who narrowly missed the pit of bankruptcy include Henry Ford, Walt Disney and Abraham Lincoln.

Build a Positive Outlook

Before the famous inventor Thomas Jefferson invented the lightbulb, he was asked how he kept going in the face of failure, to which he replied: “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” Turn failure into success by taking a positive attitude rather than dwelling on your flaws. This time of low activity can be used to build your professional strengths through courses, home learning and research into your industry. Through this period of learning you may discover some better tools and websites to use as part of your next business venture such as SEO tools, outreach, social media platforms and updated technologies. You can also use this time for self-reflection to realize what you are passionate about and why things went wrong before so you can avoid these mistakes in the future.