How should entrepreneurs handle failure? - Ask an Entrepreneur - Episode 4

A: Failure is the best partner you'll ever have. Failure is indiscriminate. Failure does not have prejudice or feelings. Failure is a part of every human’s life and helps us to identify obstacles and build self-confidence in our lives as we overcome them.

There are a couple of key points related to failure that I try to reiterate to my new startups. I remind entrepreneurs to both expect failure and to also embrace it. If you can do these two things successfully you'll be well ahead of the pack.

If you consider some of the most impactful failures in your life they were most times probably something you didn't expect. Anticipating failure (or even looking forward to it) is a great way to set realistic expectations for life and business. As long as you are open to pivoting as issues arise you can fail cheaply. Acknowledging and embracing your failures allows you to make small iterations early in the development of your company. A small change now is far less costly than a large change further down the road.

The next step is to embrace failure fully. Failure is your friend. Failure is a cheap lesson. In its simplest form failure means that there was an incongruency between what you believe to be true and what the market believes to be true. Failure, if you're empathetic and open to feedback, can help you create a better product or service moving forward, begin to build a better company, and differentiate you from your competitors. Failure is one of the greatest tools of any great entrepreneur.

So, next time you're planning and organizing to make everything perfect remind yourself to “hope for the best but to plan for the worst.” Failure is inevitable. If you delay entering the market because you are trying to avoid failure then there’s a great chance you will be sadly reminded of just how quickly the market can change and how quickly your plan can become obsolete. Sometimes it's better to jump off the cliff and to design the airplane on the way down. So, hop into the marketplace, identify the failures as they emerge, make the necessary changes, and move forward. You’ll thank me later.