Valuable Lessons Business Owners Can Learn From Failure

Failure can be a learning experience as long as you know how to deal with it. When a business owner fails, it might be due to several different factors. Determining what those factors are and learning how to avoid them in the future is the most effective way of learning from one's failures.

There's no guaranteed method for building a successful business. Real success only comes when planning and motivation meet opportunity. It's in the planning phases that an entrepreneur can build on the failures of the past. Failure isn't the end of the line, but merely a setback on the road to achievement.

• It is widely known that the default state of a startup is failure.
• 90% of startups and 75% of venture-backed startups fail.
• But failing doesn't mean losing.

The reasons vary from wrong product market fit, depletion of capital, bad partnership, regulatory hurdles to bad hiring and many more. These factors often function as multipliers in the startup world. Everything could be going well, but if there's one minor hiccup in the system, it could threaten the whole existence of an already vulnerable startup.

1. Pivot Failure Into Growth

Accepting that failures are part of having a growth mindset is the starting point. Staying nimble when uncertainty abounds (especially during Covid-19 and its aftermath) is a critical capability in developing resiliency in the long run for your business. Failure should act as a pivot point to address priorities, develop new approaches to tackling obstacles and foster continuous learning. 

2. Focus On The Journey

Conducting business is about being lean, performing trials and embracing the errors. Quite simply, you don’t get better at something unless you do it. A failed business attempt usually brings about the realization that the best philosophy in life is not to obsess with the end, but rather the means to the end. As long as you bring joy to everything you do, there will be plenty of growth in failure.

3. Maximize At-Bats

While failure is inevitable, a key element that isn't talked about enough is maximizing at-bats. In baseball, the best hitters only get a base hit three or four out of every 10 at-bats. The same holds true for business where one successful idea could make you millions. The goal should be to minimize downside so that when you fail, you can get up and swing again. Never let one failure take you out entirely. 

4. Move Forward After Failing Fast

Fail fast, analyze, learn and move forward. Not getting bogged down by failures and accepting that failure is one of the most powerful opportunities to learn and grow faster is key. I highly recommend reflecting on the failure objectively, identifying gaps and learning from it. 

5. See It As A Learning Experience

Trying things out and failing at them in a short period of time, often known as failing fast, is a brilliant learning experience. However, different cultures accept failures in different ways. In Asia, failing means a loss of face and is just unacceptable, whereas it's part of the entrepreneurial journey in South Africa Personally, I find it a brilliant and inexpensive learning experience.

6. Locate The Weak Link

Look at what you failed at. Locate the weak link, adjust and try again. Business is all about a never-ending cycle of optimization and tweaking. Use failures to guide your optimization. 

7. Understand That Defeat Is A Tool

A truth of life is that someone will need to be foolish for wisdom to continue to have value. There is a characterization of success that is incomplete without the fact of failures. We don't outgrow warfare, we simply learn to fight. At that level, defeat is a tool for building newness if we focus on the lessons. There is no visionary that knew success and knew not failure first. 

8. Reframe It As Proactive

I believe that failure is only a failure if you do not learn from it. Like a young child learning to walk, we don't get mad at them for not knowing. We are supportive, encouraging, helpful and loving. Innovation, evolution and progression happen because someone is pushing to the edge, falling, getting back up and trying again. Failure requires a reframe. It is not negative, but proactive. 

9. Embrace Needed Changes

Failing is part of growing. As you pursue entrepreneurship always keep in mind that chances are if you don’t study and learn, the business you will fail. Take time to organize your thoughts, realize what you did wrong and embrace change. Anyone can succeed, but it all comes down to how badly you really want it. 

10. Move On With Humility

Humility is key. Failure is necessary and it requires iterations to refine, but what's rarely discussed is the benefit of personal failure. Some have a skewed perception of self-worth, abilities or talents that do not always line up with reality. Failure is helpful systematic market feedback on you, the person. It's humbling and those who gain humility win in the long run. 

11. Build Processes To Avoid Failure

The lesson learned is to not repeat the past. Build processes that safeguard you from similar failures in the future. At my company, we learned the hard way to minimize float for our clients. When our largest client went bankrupt, the float we extended got written off and nearly put us out of business. Because of that experience, we have systems in place to prevent a repeat.

Let us know in the comment section and share with us which tip you found the most useful.

About: Andries vanTonder

Over 40 years selfemployed 

He is a Serial Entrepreneur, an Enthusiastic supporter of Blockchain Technology and a Cryptocurrency Investor

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