Many people, especially creatives, don’t want to think about the importance of failing in business. But what’s crazy is that failure is one of the biggest indicators of success. The faster you can adjust to the idea that everyone fails, the more quickly you can start to see your own success in business. Here’s why it’s important to fail in business, and how you can fail gracefully.
Failure informs you of what doesn’t work.
If you have been a creative, even for a short period of time, you are already aware of how necessary the process of trial and error is. You can sit and watch fifty-leven (as my Grandma would say) YouTube videos and accomplish nothing until you actually do the work. It is in doing the work that you realize the best techniques to use. What works for others, may not work for you and that is the beauty of failure. That’s right. There is beauty in failure.
You can only lose so many times before you WIN.
You can only fail so many times before there is a major breakthrough. After so many attempts and failures, you can take comfort in knowing that a win is coming very soon. It’s sort of a numbers game. You put in a TON, and you might get some back. The odds will always be in your favor if you put in the effort, love. Sometimes, the only difference between you and the person you are admiring on Instagram is just effort and time. Continuing to push through the obstacles that you will face, strengthens your creative muscle. I promise that it will get easier (although never easy).
Failing a bunch of times leads to creativity.
If you are dedicated to a thing, you will find a way to make it happen. Doors will slam in your face. This will give you the opportunity to go around the back. Or have someone else knock. Or move onto the next door. Regardless, you will find an alternate route if it means that much to you. One of the biggest triggers of creativity is the idea of limiting your access. For instance, if you want to spark your creativity while painting, limit the colors that you can use. This will force you to come up with other ways to do what you need to do. It’s genius!
We can choose to take failure as a personal shortcoming. Or we can change that mindset to consider failure as a part of the process. I will fail. And I will succeed. Failing while trying will lead to personal growth and a strengthening of your confidence. Don’t look at failure as a bad thing. Failure is just learning clothed in a little pain. See you on the backstroke!!! Until then…