Here's a confession...
Not every idea I've had has been golden.
In fact, I can say that many of the business ideas I've tried have managed to bring me... well, let's just say something was funding one or two lunches per week.
That's one of the advantages of marketing. Everyone gets to know about your successes but your failures just fade away.
But I don't regret any one of those bad ideas. That's not just because they showed me what wasn't working, and not just because each failure moved me one step closer to the killer idea that would make money. Both of those things are true but they're not what make little failures so important to success.
I don't regret them because they were inevitable.
I still set aside time regularly to sit with my staff and brainstorm. We toss out ideas, laugh at the crazy ones, get enthusiastic about some thoughts before dropping them and always come out of each session with a list of projects that we're sure are going to have the money pouring in.
And yet we also prepared for the fact that not all of them are going to work.
We've done the first thing that's necessary for business success: we've set aside time to experiment.
It's important to me to always be trying new things. I like to do things that others have not done before. And why not? There's so much that remains to be done!
Instead of focusing only on what we know works, we're always looking for new paths, new strategies and new ways of generating revenue. If you want to keep moving forward, that's vital.
The second thing needed to succeed though is to understand that success doesn't happen all the time.
If we try ten ideas and one works, that's good enough. We'll have had fun with the other nine and we'll still have made money.
We didn't give up at the first sign of a bad idea and that's vital too.
But perhaps most important of all when you're trying new ideas is to be able to recognize failure when you see it.
Experimenting is fun, and it's essential, but tossing good marketing time and money after a project that won't take off is just bad business.
If you experiment, you have to be prepared to fail. And if you're prepared to fail, you have to be able to spot that failure... and keep replacing it until you find the idea that succeeds.
Then you try to find another one.
It's Del.icio.us!
Furl It!
January 29, 2009 09:12 AM
I agree with you on not regretting the decisions you have made that have failed.
Failure to me is nothing more than an opportunity to learn more about my industry, market and myself. It helps me make better decisions in the future.
Great post
January 29, 2009 09:37 AM
So right on, Joel. Failure is just a fact of life. The more you fail and the faster you do it, the closer you are to success.
January 29, 2009 10:02 AM
If you're not failing, you're not taking big enough chances. It's the only way to innovate these days, especially when you're dealing with new media and technologies. Unfortunately, many organizations still punish failure, so executives are afraid to try anything risky. Been there, done that, almost got fired - won't try it again. I think it's great that you encourage such experimentation among your team members, Joel. It's one of the reasons that you and your firm are so successful today!
In fact, I admire your approach so much that I'd like to conduct a Thought Leader interview with you for my website, InnovationTools.com. Please drop me an e-mail and let me know when we can schedule a call.
Keep up the great work!
January 29, 2009 10:24 AM
I agree with this. I believe there is no such thing as a "failure" because you always learn from it. One of the main purposes of my website is to motivate and inspire people to learn from their failures and improve themselves.
January 29, 2009 10:43 AM
Well said, Joel. It reminds me of a book I would highly recommend to anyone who has experienced failure - Failing Forward. I read it a few years ago after a (what then seemed like) disastrous real estate project. Good read and good points here. Sounds like your business meetings are fun!
January 29, 2009 07:01 PM
I also read John Maxwell's book, Failing Forward. It's a great view on failure. In fact, if you are not failing, you are not taking consistent action, and therefore, you are not going to accomplish a whole lot. It's time for all of us to double our failure rate, as long as we are learning from our mistakes! :)
January 29, 2009 11:09 PM
Great post Joel! I love the quote you made, "each failure moved me one step closer to the killer idea that would make money." That is so very true! That's why people should never give up.
January 31, 2009 09:20 PM
The only time we fail in life, is when we don't learn anyting from the experience. We will 'fail' our way to success in life!
February 10, 2009 10:52 PM
Two things that I have invested a considerable amount of time in is building a couple of forums. Neither of them has really taken off and they are not making enough money to even pay for the annual domain costs.
I have basically put them on the shelf for now and have moved onto creating some other sites.
I am not really sure what to do with the dead weight forums at this point.
Thanks for a great post, I think I may be a little closer to the realization that my efforts are not as successful as I'd expected but it's OK, just keep moving forward.
February 26, 2009 10:28 AM
I can't tell you how many times I have failed.
I used to beat myself up every time I stumbled.
But then I learned. I learned to start surrounding myself with like-minded individuals by attending seminars. My first one was Ken McAthur's JV Alert.
There I learned from so many helpful people I met.
Still being human, we all still have our shares of failures, but we learn from our mistakes.
Now with our first, original site built and starting to create a buzz...
Onto the next list of 1300+ domains we will now build & sell.
Mistakes are happening less & less. Thanks to the support of folks like you who freely lend their insights & advice on you blogs.
Best,
-K
http://www.for-the-troops.com/shop/
10% of after-tax proceeds are donated to military charities.
April 12, 2009 09:35 PM
Nice to see somebody approaching "failures" in such a good way. I believe that as long as time is spent constructivly, there is no time wasted.
All the best =]