Why Failing is Good for Business & You Should Celebrate

Are you held back by the thought of getting it wrong or doing the wrong thing and looking like you don’t know what you’re doing? But can failing be good for business?

There are so many things we want to avoid in business; trolls, refund requests, hiccups in your email sequence, spelling errors, being contradicted on the advice you’ve given in a public space and broken links on your website.

Failing is good for business

So often we are told to celebrate the good. But the philosophy of only focussing on what works is a bit one-sided.

It encourages you to ignore or overlook the failures, the ‘bad’, the things we haven’t done, the actions not taken, and the tasks not completed. BUT these are all clues! Insights. Progress. Useful pieces of information about what is going on externally and internally.

Yes, if allowed it could cycle into doom and despair and that’s what we want to avoid. Blame, criticism and judgement. That’s the ‘bad’ we can ignore and forget.

But the list of things we haven’t achieved is useful. Paying attention to it is essential.

Ignoring the Failures

If we gloss over what we haven’t done then we set our goals or write our task list without learning the lesson. We need to figure out why things aren’t completed. Why our goals aren’t achieved. Without these insights, we are no more likely to do it this time around.

What might those failures or avoidances be trying to tell us?

• Did we underestimate how long it would take? Or how much time we had available.
• Are there some steps we need to do first to be able to get to that goal?
• Do we really, truly, deep down actually want that thing, or that part of the dream?
• Does the action align to who we are as a person, to our values and strengths?

I’m not suggesting you shouldn’t celebrate achievements. But you should also celebrate your failures. You can learn lessons from both. You don’t have to judge yourself or beat yourself up.

Use the information with curiosity to discover how to make the future better.

• When it works, figure out why so you can do more of that.
• When it doesn’t work, figure out why so can do less or different. How you are going to improve your chances of it working? What can you stop doing or avoid? Assess each aspect of what didn’t work to see where tweaks might create a different outcome.

Failing is Part of the Process

Knowing what doesn’t work means you are one step closer to knowing what does work. This is why failing is good for business, it shows progress and trying is never failing.

You are never going to be perfect. It’s never going to be absolutely right. There isn’t a crystal ball to see exactly what is going to work before you try it. The secret is in owning your path, accepting failure and getting it wrong are progress. And learning the lessons from both the successes and failures.

What failure could you celebrate this week? And what can you learn from it?

If you need help finding your successes, harnessing your failures and figuring out what works then get in touch for a free 30-minute no-obligation chat. We’ll look at where you are holding yourself back and plan a few actions to keep you moving forward.

Watch the Video

Pin for Later