4 reasons successful people celebrate failure

Failure is harsh, unforgiving and brutal. Failure doesn’t see skin color, ethnicity or socio-economic background. It’s an equal-opportunity offender and is always lurking just around the corner. As an entrepreneur, the likelihood that your company will be worth US$1-billion one day is less than 1 in 10 000, or 0.0001%. Even for those that just do “okay”, the attrition rate of startups in the US is roughly 50%.

If you’re going to build a business, or go into business for yourself, you’re signing up for some sort of failure. But that’s a good thing! Wait, what?

1. Failure oftentimes isn’t our fault

Do you even remember the Palm Pilot? A fixture in the hands of A-Type personalities in the 90’s, it was the undisputed market leader in electronic time management. What started as a personal data organizer (PDA) became the forerunner of the modern smartphone.

On a Palm Pilot, you could install apps developed by outside software vendors. One of these vendors created a comprehensive software enhancement for the Palm Pilot that offered increased functionality, including the ability to send payments online. This software company, called Confinity, focused almost all of their resources on the Palm OS ecosystem.

According to Peter Cohan’s article on Inc.com, the company struggled to gain traction as the Palm OS became increasingly antiquated. As the Blackberry and then the iPhone and Android devices began to absorb market share, developing for Palm OS became a real disaster.

2. Failure plants the seeds for future success

Although, from the failure of Confinity, came something unique and critical to the modern age. Remember how I mentioned the software allowed for payments online? The force behind Confinity, Max Levchin, later went on to co-found PayPal with Elon Musk. He took that failure and used the valuable pieces of his creation to build something completely new; changing the way the world processes financial transactions online forever.

That one, simple feature in that failed software ecosystem later became the cornerstone of PayPal, a US$1.5-billion company after its acquisition by EBay. His initial failures led him on a path towards becoming part of the 0.0001%.

3. Failure forces us to improve and innovate

When things are going well, it’s incredibly easy to become comfortable and slow down. Failure is nature’s way of kicking us in the butt and reminding us that if we aren’t moving forward, we’re moving backward.

Consider the PDA platform we discussed earlier. At the turn of the 21st century, Palm, Inc. held 85% of the mobile organizer market. In 2005, they did US$1.27-billion in sales! But, by 2010, the smartphone developer was on its knees, eventually getting acquired by Hewlett-Packard for just US$5.70 per share.

The threat of failure is ready for anyone that falls prey to what Clayton Christensen calls “The Innovator’s Dilemma”. There’s never time to slow down and rest, as competitors are ready to copy your success and improve upon it.

4. Failure provides a fresh perspective

I remember when I started working as a marketing consultant. As my book of clients grew, I learned the hard way how important time management was. I missed deadlines and forgot to follow-up with some of my biggest clients. I was chasing my tail and falling victim to my own success.

I learned the importance of outsourcing my time-eaters. Karen Cordaway touches on this in her article, 3 Ways Freelancers Can Outsource When You Don’t Generate Enough Revenue. She came to many of the same conclusions I did. I began to find ways to prepare my meals more efficiently. I hired a cleaning service to clean my house every two weeks. A clean, more organized life helped me focus on work without having to break away to prepare meals and keep things organized.

I failed to keep up, but it forced me to approach my life from a fresh perspective that showed me how important balance was. Time at the gym was more important than preparing my own food. Think about it, ten minutes of food-prep per meal (times three daily meals) equals 30 minutes in the gym. That time in the gym gives me the mental energy to focus and complete my work more effectively.

Failure is simply an opportunity to achieve success

Don’t let the fear of failure cripple you. Analysis paralysis is deadly. Instead, launch into every day with the knowledge that you will fail, and that’s okay! Failure means that you succeeded in reaching your limits. Pushing against those limits forces you to grow and develop.

I have yet to meet a successful entrepreneur who hasn’t failed at least 3-4 times on major projects. Every failure was a lesson that they took forward into their next pursuit. What will today’s failures teach you about tomorrow’s successes?

Image by Ian Lamont via Flickr.