If failure is inevitable, why try?
It’s been a little over 8 years since I started my entrepreneurial journey, and it was as expected — one emotional rollercoaster ride followed by another. I don’t regret it one bit. Will I do it again? In the last 6 months, my answer has changed from “never” to “not sure.” My guess is it’s heading to “possibly” in another 6 months.
Statistics show that the percentage of small businesses or startups that succeed are tiny (the failure rate for even venture-backed startups is pretty high). While there is an inherent financial risk, the emotional cost of starting a business is far more significant. Everything you read and hear about the pitfalls of entrepreneurship is 100% true.
The Psychological Price Founders Pay — True
The Mental Health Issues Founders are vulnerable to — True
The Depression Founders are prone to — True
Yet, having prior knowledge of this will not deter any entrepreneur from trying. It takes your own experience to drive these points home. Every entrepreneur will tell you that failure is inevitable. A successful entrepreneur will tell you how they found success in their failure. Yes, learning from your mistakes is important. But the code to success is not in the lessons themselves or the new opportunities you discover by failing; the path to success is via determination, perseverance, and humility.
The determination that will force you to innovate to overcome roadblocks will drive you to look for new opportunities when things look bleak. Your perseverance will push you to get over disappointments when things don’t go according to plan and make you try again, and again…and again. Humility will help you accept your failings and mistakes, enable you to ask for help when you need it, make you vulnerable so others can see your struggle.
All three put together shows your courage as an entrepreneur. This, in turn, will attract experts/successful people to help you and invest in you (with their time or money or both).
One final note about entrepreneurship. I was recently chatting with an entrepreneur friend who described his two failed attempts at starting companies. While he was talking, I could see his entrepreneurial spirit rekindling. He then told me he has at least one or two attempts left in him and talked about what he may do differently the next time.
You see, entrepreneurship isn’t about building successful companies and making headlines. It is also not a collection of ideas — no matter how brilliant the ideas are. Entrepreneurship is a desire to create something new or make something better. That spirit does not die with failure.
Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.
