Why Failure is Essential for Success in Your Business

Failure’s a given. Here’s how to learn what it’s here to teach you.

Life is challenging and you don’t have to be a business owner to confirm this fact. When running your business, challenges and failures will come your way. These challenges will either knock you off your course or steer you on in strength.

It might seem contradictory but in order to achieve our dreams, we have to make mistakes. Failure is essential for success in your personal life and in business.

You may be a small business owner and you’ve been facing some difficult times. We are here to tell you that it is possible that everything will work out fine. We want you to know that failure is going to be the most crucial stepping-stones leading to your success at the end of it all.

Fear of failure can be a massive stumbling block in your business, so that’s why we want to show you how to embrace it and learn from it.

Mistakes happen

We understand that on your quest for entrepreneurial glory, you might not have considered how many times things will go wrong.

You might think that if you work hard, hire the right people and #hustle, you’ll hit your profit goals in no time.

That’s not how this works.

Oftentimes we hit stumbling blocks in our business that range from mildly annoying to downright catastrophic.

So once we accept that failure is not only inevitable but essential, we can arm ourselves to get something positive out of the experience.

Take Thomas Edison for example.

He perfected the lightbulb and many other devices but was well acquainted with failure. Apparently, it took him up to 1000 attempts to get his lightbulb stable and operational! We can be inspired by him and so many amazing people. No matter how many times it seems as if you’re failing, don’t think of it as a failed attempt, but instead, look at it as a positive victory toward your bigger achievement!

5 reasons why failure is essential for success and for your business

1. Failure improves who you are as a person (you become more resilient)

When you come across setbacks in business, it’s easy to want to give up.

But use these as opportunities to become stronger.f

Failure can change who you are and in this instance, it can turn you into a more resilient person.

Resilience is a rare, yet powerful characteristic humans develop through life’s lessons. Resilience will enable you to get back up when life knocks you down. It also helps you to be positive in everything you do or set out to do.

2. Failure helps you to aim for success

Failure is essential for success because it shapes the way you see your business. If you weren’t faced with challenges and hard times, you wouldn’t otherwise realise how great and strong you are. Or that you can reach for higher achievements if you set your mind to it.

When we experience failure, it helps us to focus on being successful. Failure pushes us to work harder and not to give up because we want to succeed and reach our highest goals.

A great way to use failure to reach for success is to find role models who have also been knocked down in their business, only to come back stronger.

3. It changes your point of focus

Failure is essential for success because it can redirect your focus and energy. If you’ve been struggling with a project but it seems your current strategy fails, then it’s time to change strategy. Refocus yourself and think of a new way forward.

You can only realise that what you’re doing now isn’t working if you in fact, experience failure during the time. So welcome failure and try to use it to your advantage.

4. Experiencing failure helps you to grow

During the time of failure, it is also a crucial period to grow and improve in what you want to do. You may have thought that becoming an international business is far-fetched or impossible. If you failed at the first attempt just keep on trying.

There is no goal or dream that is “too far-fetched” to realise. Nothing is impossible and thus when you fail it helps you to grow. The next step is to realise what your strengths and weaknesses are. Once you know, and then use it to your advantage while also being realistic.

5. Become all the wiser

While messing up or losing a client could seem like the end of the world at the time, they actually should be seen as windows of opportunity.

In our own business, we also get downhearted if we lose a client.

For instance, we once did work on a group project consisting of 10 Facebook accounts. We were contracted to place ads on Facebook for these 10 accounts.

We did quite a lot of work on the accounts, but because we were sub-contracted to do the ads, our monthly revenue for the work was quite low.

One day, completely out of the blue, we were informed that they were taking their marketing “in-house” and they no longer needed our services.

We were shocked beyond belief because the accounts were running well and there had been no issues at all.

Just like that, we lost 10 clients in one fell swoop.

But a funny thing happened.

Within one month, we were approached by another client running a multi-million dollar business. He also has several Facebook accounts that he required help with.

And just ONE of his Facebook accounts is worth more than those 10 clients we lost combined.

PLUS, as he is a bigger client, so he is able to spend more on Facebook and he allows us more creative freedom to run his ads.

It goes without saying that our retainer (monthly revenue) from this client is way higher.

Now if we had obsessed over the smaller accounts we lost, we wouldn’t have been ready or able to handle this whale of a client.

So don’t take failure as a judgement on yourself.

Get your head back in the game and move forward with your business.

What to tell yourself to accept that failure is essential for success

Self-affirmation is great to help you build courage and self-esteem. It is not only good for your personal life but a positive mindset will help you to succeed in all facets of your life.

Mindset is a massive part of being successful in work and in life. So when tough times come (and they will), it’s important to set the tone for how you will handle it.

Keep yourself and your team motivated by realising:

I can do it
A failed attempt doesn’t mean the end
To fail is to step higher
I have failed, but I am not a failure
I will use failure to grow and become strong and resilient
Everything happens for a reason
The best in the world failed first

Tips To help you overcome failure:

When things go wrong it becomes all too easy to get sucked into depression or feeling like your competition is winning.

Failure is essential for success in business

Failure’s a given. It’s how you respond that matters.

1. Accept failure as a step towards success

Stop seeing failure as the worst thing in the world or the end of your road to achievement. Rather, see it as a step towards your goal and success.

Remember, J.K. Rowling’s pitch for Harry Potter was rejected a staggering 12 times before it was picked up by a publisher!

And the Harry Potter series of books made her the worlds first billionaire author.

So if she can keep going, so can you.

Without failure, you cannot discover how good you truly are at what you do. Also, tell yourself and start realising that everybody fails. That doesn’t mean that you should label yourself “failure”.

2. Turn failure into a boost towards success

Call it a form of leverage or even pure courage. If you can use failure to your advantage then you can be certain that you are on your way to experiencing a “win”. Failure makes you strong and it pushes you towards success.

Sometimes the best thing that can happen to you is to not get what you want. Because this forces you to use your creativity to come up with a new route for success.

3. Have an overview of your goals

Your goals are what set you onto a path of wanting to achieve something in particular.

For instance, you want to become renowned as one of the best beauty spas in your region. Your goal may not be realised because you are competing against a well-known brand that’s been in your area many years longer than you have.

Reflect on your goal and reassess. How badly do you still want this goal? If you still want to pursue it then take your current situation and turn it into a launchpad to reach for your dream.

Look at what you need to do to help you meet your goal.

Maybe you need to work on getting influencers to promote your business or increase your presence on Instagram and in that way land build your reputation.

In short, when you revaluate your goals, you can see ways to “tweak” them according to what you need for success.

The takeaway why failure is essential for success

While most motivational posts promote being positive and reaching for success, we decided to be realistic about the entrepreneurial journey.

There’s no point imagining that owning your own business won’t come without problems and setbacks. But if you’re resilient and creative, you can find your way out of virtually any situation.

Embracing failure is an important step to greatness. Pretty much ALL the most successful people in the world have failed and often more than once. You can use this concept to build your resilience and keep going even when things don’t go your way.

Every failure is your chance to step further up the ladder of success in your own life and in your business. It may not seem possible to succeed in every attempted challenge. However, remember, that despite several “failed” attempts, your success will come.

Failure is a gift and your opportunity to start achieving.