Failing in business is common. But there’s a smart way to fail, and that’s to fail often and fail fast. There are so many stories about how entrepreneurs failed before they reached success that everyone should think of failing as the normal thing to do.
Failing often and failing fast is a necessity. Learning is the most important way to grow as an individual and as an entrepreneur. When you understand that you are not going to get it right the first time in any project you start, the possibilities open to you are endless. The principles of failing fast are useful in business, but can be applied to all things in life.
Table of Contents
- Look for safe ways to fail.
- Don’t dwell on failure.
- Learn your lessons and don’t forget them.
- Exercise resiliency.
- Try many new and different things.
- Have a mentor or guide.
- Refuse to give up and to think that failure is the end.
- Have courage and don’t fear failure.
1. Look for safe ways to fail.
Think of ways to get started on your business while taking on minimal risk. Looking for safe ways to fail means that you don’t invest a ton of money into your new project. Minimize the risk by building your business with the least amount of startup capital. This will require some creativity, so look for ways to reduce the amount of money you need to start your business. What you don’t want to do is invest a ton of money in an idea that you later find out isn’t going to work. The smart way to fail is to fail with minimal risk. So start simple and start small. This allows you to fail often and fail fast.
2. Don’t dwell on past failure.
If you fail after your first, second, or hundredth attempt, move on. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and don’t dwell on failure. The sooner you get back up, the quicker you will reach success. You’re going to do this often, and you are going to do this fast. So don’t dwell on failure and move on quickly. Perfectionism is the enemy of forward progress. Your attempts are not meant to be perfect.
3. Learn your lessons and don’t forget them.
Keep a record of your attempts, especially what didn’t work, and what you can change. A failure ends up being only a failure if you don’t learn anything from it. Forget the failure itself, but remember the lessons. It’s called learning because you have to do something that you’ve never done before. You’re unfamiliar with what you’re doing, and not knowing how to do something can be uncomfortable. But once you’ve done something a couple of times, your muscle memory takes over, and it’s like doing something automatically without much thought. The smart way to fail teaches you many lessons, and as you get better at failing, you get better at learning.
4. Exercise resiliency.
If you are to succeed in business, you must toughen up and be resilient. I’ve heard stories of many people getting knocked down by what life deals them, but the most successful people are the most resilient ones who get back up and try again. You should be familiar with failing often and failing fast, because this builds resilience and lets you get back up faster. You become stronger and failure doesn’t break you.
5. Try many new and different things.
Business is all about experimenting. You have to try a whole bunch of different things before you can stumble on the one thing that works. Tweak each experiment and you’ll eventually find that momentum that leads you to your goal. That’s why with each reiteration, you’ll get closer to achieving your goal. Nothing works the first time. It’s by repeating these experiments with better knowledge of what works and what doesn’t work that leads you to success. Get as much experience as you can because experience is the best teacher.
6. Have a mentor or guide.
A good mentor or guide has a wealth of knowledge that they can share with you. Having a mentor on your side can save you time and energy, because they will tell you when you are taking the wrong step. They will show you the quickest path to success. Having a mentor is a part of learning. With their experience, they can show you the way to success, and the quickest way to get there.
7. Refuse to give up and to think that failure is the end.
Business is about experimenting. Think of these experiments as a maze. Are you going to get to your destination at the first attempt? No. You’ll take winding paths and meander. You’ll get led down the wrong path. But this eliminates the wrong turns and eventually you’ll learn and get to your destination.
The right thing to do is to keep trying. The wrong thing to do is to give up. Failure is not the end, it’s the beginning.
8. Have courage and don’t fear failure.
If you are afraid to try something new because you fear what people will think of you, or that they will laugh at you when you fail, just know that everyone’s memory is temporary. If there’s one thing good about short attention spans these days, it means that people will forget what you did and move on to the next thing to laugh at. The smart way to fail is to have the courage to fail often and fail fast.
The above tips are smart ways to fail. Like in life, nothing in business is certain, so fail often, and fail fast. That is the only way you will learn, become resilient, and find success. At first, it is painful to fall down and fail. You get scrapes and cuts. But the ones who succeed are the ones who will bandage their wounds and get back up.
Business books to read about failing often and failing fast:
Million Dollar Weekend by Noah Kagan
The Sweaty Startup: How to Get Rich by Doing Boring Things by Nick Huber