Consider Failure in your Strategy

Ben Beveridge, Inspiring Excellence Inc., Vernon, BC, Futurpreneur Canada Mentor, ben@inspiringexcellence.ca

I don’t believe that anyone is ever really ready to start a new business, no matter how well prepared they seem to be. No matter how much you’ve researched. No matter how much cash you’ve raised. No matter how amazing your business plan is. There is always that little bit of fear that things might not work out the way you’ve planned. Maybe you didn’t save up quite enough cash to get you through. Maybe you missed something in the analysis. Maybe the market shifts in a way that you didn’t project. Maybe, just maybe, the sky really is falling. These are all fears that we live with as human beings, and fears that are amplified exponentially when taking a risk and attempting to launch a new idea, a new product or a new way of thinking.

Fear of not being fast enough, fear of not knowing enough, fear of not being smart enough, fear of not having what it takes, or fear of not achieving the desired result. The greatest of these fears is failure. It is the greatest because it is the root of all the other fears. Failure is the greatest obstacle to any venture, and it’s the greatest obstacle within every entrepreneur, not because it is likely to occur, but because we fear that it will. Allowing that fear to drive our thoughts creates the conditions for the fear of failure to be self-fulfilling. Accepting that fear of failure is a useful and valuable part of the process crafts the foundation for action, flexibility, and flow.

The entrepreneurs that succeed are those that accept the fear of failure as part of the adventure, embracing the danger, and facing the challenge of uncertainty and leaning into the venture. Success is not only marked by building a business that does well, it is also having the ability to survive, learn, and move forward when it doesn’t.