Failure is absolutely inevitable in life. It’s how we allow failure to affect us that has a big impact.
Of course, no one wants to fail, but if you shift your mindset to learn from your fails, you will go farther, faster in life.
After many years of mistakes and bad choices, I’m starting to appreciate my fails.
I’ve spent a lot of time depressed, lost, and truly defeated to the point of almost giving up everything. It’s only recently that my thoughts are getting a little clearer.
When we fail at something, it’s hard to sift through all the emotions that follow to find the lesson.
However, when you zoom out and look at the big picture, our failures deliver us some of the most valuable lessons in life.
Healthy Ways to Look at Failure as an Entrepreneur
Rerouting
After a lot of self-reflecting, I’ve discovered that everything goes to hell when I’m not being myself.
I now think of failure as a type of universal course correction. Yes, I went there. I am not a religious person, but I do have my spiritual moments.
To get by in life, I have to believe there is something bigger than us – what I usually call the Universe.
I’ve read enough self-help books and watched plenty of inspirational videos to know all about the power of thought, The Secret, the power of intention, and all of that.
However, it’s so hard to lose my way and spiral into the depths of depression before I remember all of that.
Back to my point. My failures have all occurred when I’m clearly veering off my path. My path has never been clear, but my core values and desires have been.
When I don’t care who’s looking, I know who I am and what I want most of the time. When I lose focus of that, I fail.
The only part I struggle with on this theory is when someone else is involved. Why would a project I’m working on with another person fail?
I mean that’s literally thinking the universe revolves around me. Are we both going down the wrong path in that case? Does one of us have the power to drag the other down?
Oh, I Definitely Didn’t Come up with This…
Fun fact: I just googled “universe course correction” and it’s a thing. Here I am thinking I had an epiphany and I definitely heard it somewhere else and claimed it as my own. Awesome.
I’m keeping this post because it still helped me change my mindset regardless of where I absorbed this info.
Personal Growth
Stepping back to examine a failure allows us to grow as humans. When you can dissect a massive fail and extract the lesson, it’s easy to see it as a gift.
It might take a while to see it that way. After the self-loathing, pity party, and emotional throttling, if you open your mind enough, you can feel yourself level up in this game of life.
Learning
If it’s not obvious, the failures I’m referring to are mostly business decisions. Here are some of the things I’ve learned from trying and failing at certain businesses.
- I’m not being true to myself. Anything I do with heart is always much more successful than something forced.
- It’s not leading me toward my goals. Call it the Universe, call it an inner compass, or call it a coincidence, but any time I stray off the path to my goals, I fail.
- I started for money only. Starting a business with the sole purpose of income usually leads me straight to desperation. There’s something extremely real about fulfillment and feeling a sense of purpose.
- It feels like work. Okay, this sounds super spoiled-brattish, but hear me out. There’s a difference between doing what you need to do to pay the bills and sacrificing a huge chunk of life to roll the dice as an entrepreneur.
When I started my entrepreneurial journey, it was fueled by passion. That passion is necessary when you work for yourself. Of course, there’s drudgery with any business, but when the entirety of it feels like a job, it’s usually not sustainable.
Awakening
Maybe it’s not the Universe changing our paths. Maybe it’s our own subconscious. Maybe, deep down, we all have an inner compass that knows our truest goals and aspirations.
Maybe I have no idea what I’m talking about.
All I know is when I felt inspired to write this blog post, I got the chills. After months of crippling anxiety and depression, I felt awakened with a sense of renewed purpose.
Challenging
If you’re an entrepreneur, the chances are good that you love a challenge. Think of your failures as challenges to shift your perspective.
If it’s something you really want to pursue, perhaps learn the skills you need to succeed. If it’s not something you want to move forward with, let it go and be happy you have another experience to check off your list.
Remember to enjoy the journey.
Depending on where you are at on the failure path as you read this, there’s a good chance you want to punch me in the face. I get it. I am there more often than I’d like to admit.
But, please, instead of spinning your wheels in desperation, take a step back.
If it’s a financially crippling failure, I suggest you get a job for a bit. For sure, continue to work on your entrepreneur goals, but that out of control feeling that goes with being broke absolutely destroys creativity.
Don’t let failure make you stop trying. It often takes a lot of fails to find the right fit on this work from home journey.
Have you ever felt like a failure was steering you back on your path?