Learning from mistakes

People see success as positive and failure as a negative. Failure isn’t a bad thing. You can learn, grow and evolve from your past mistakes. In business, failure is an all too common occurrence. After all, nine out of 10 small businesses will fail.

That statistic may make you uneasy, but it’s one worth knowing. Failing once, twice, or even hundreds of times doesn’t mean you’ve hit the end of the road – it means you’ve taken another turn, and you’re one step closer to success. As you go through life and encounter failures, you’ll learn valuable life lessons from those mistakes

What is failure?

At its most basic definition, failure is a lack of success. For businesses, failure can take on many shapes and forms. Failure could mean you were unable to land a big sale or refer to a marketing campaign that never got the results you were looking for. You can also fail in your hiring practices or training opportunities.

How to learn from your failures

Rarely in the business world is there success without failure. As you pursue your entrepreneurial dreams, you’re going to fail.

It’s often said that failure doesn’t stop people, it’s how people handle failure that stops them.

When you encounter failure, tackle it head on and learn from your mistakes. Realize that every idea that pops up in your mind isn’t going to work. Take the time to organize your thoughts after a failure and realize what you did wrong. Above all else, be willing to learn and grow.

Stay humble

When you’re doing well in life, it feels like nothing can stop you. There are no words that can properly pin down feeling like you’re on top of the world.

However, when failure hits, it hurts. Sometimes it hurts so bad that you think you’ll never be successful again. Staying humble helps curb the dramatic feeling of loss and failure.

While you’re flying high on the feelings of success, never forget that you’re human, and treat everyone with the same humility and respect that you expect in return.

When you’re humble, you’ll be mentally prepared for failure when it comes your way. It will also ensure that you don’t get a “big head,” plus people who are close to you will help lift you up when things are not going your way.

Learn from your mistakes

It’s almost impossible to find a story of success that doesn’t have a trail of mistakes behind it. Nearly everyone experiences failure at some point in their life. The key to overcoming obstacles and becoming successful starts with learning from your mistakes. When failure strikes, ask yourself why it happened.

Was it a result of something you did? Or did an outside force play a part?

Don’t be afraid to be accountable when you’re responsible for a business failure. In many cases, something could have been done differently to prevent the collapse. Think deeply about your situation and don’t be afraid to do a little soul-searching.

Embrace change

One of the ways to learn from your failures is by embracing change. Some people absolutely despise change, and it’s easy to see why. People get caught up in their ways, they get used to seeing the same people at the office, they like the routine.

When you fail, sometimes you have to change things drastically. If things are not going your way and you have to start over, sometimes you have to sit back and look at the changes that need to be made and embrace them.

When you embrace change after a failure, you’re encouraging healthy mental growth and development. If you want to be a healthy entrepreneur, you have to be a mentally healthy human being.

Filter your ideas

Not every idea that pops into your mind is a good one. When you’re on a roll it’s easy to want to act on every business idea that comes to mind. Maybe you’re thinking about making a new product? Perhaps you want to beef up your marketing campaign. You could just have a bunch of blog ideas that you know will generate more traffic.

Slow down. The best thing you can do to filter through your ideas is to take notes. Either carry around a small notepad or download an app to your smartphone or laptop. As ideas pop up, jot them down. Give your thoughts time to marinate before you act on them.

There is a saying that for every good idea there are 100 bad ones. Bad ideas can lead to failure on both a small and large scale. Note your thoughts and revisit them in the coming hours, days or even weeks.

In most cases, you’ll discover that most of your ideas were not as good as you initially thought.