Learn From Your Failures As an Entrepreneur, Then Forget Them

As humans, we have a tendency to obsess about failures.  They worry us, they stick with us, they can drive us to drink, or worse.  Though this is a natural human instinct, you must avoid it like the plague.  First off, you should not be too quick to judge yourself or a particular endeavor a “failure”.  As one famous inventor (I think it was Edison) said when someone asked him if he had failed again with a certain experiment, “no, I’ve just eliminated another approach that does not work”.  This is the perspective you need to have.  If you are going to try to do things that are difficult, inevitably, you will suffer from setbacks.  Do not dwell on them, rather log what you can learn into your memory banks, then move on and don’t look back.  This is not to say that you should “deny” your failures; it is very important that you acknowledge their existence and learn what you can from them, but don’t let them bring you down and lessen the focus you will need to succeed next time.  History is full of people who have “failed” time and again, only to persevere and end up doing something extraordinary enough to make us remember their names.  Those are the people you want to emulate in your persistent pursuit of your goals.

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