Where do I start from?: Learning to fail

FAILURE?

 

Think about that word for just one second. What does failure mean to you? Let us explore a couple of meanings from recognised dictionaries below:

 

According to the Collins Dictionary, failure is a lack of success in doing or achieving something, especially in relation to a particular activity.

According to the Cambridge Dictionary, failure is the fact of someone or something not succeeding.

According to the Merriam-Webster  Dictionary, failure is an omission of occurrence or performance or the lack of success.

The common denominator in all of these definitions is success. We as human beings are driven by success and programmed in a way that success is the only way in which we perceive ourselves to have actually made something of ourselves. Anything in the opposite direction is deemed failure. We are confined by stereotypes and societal expectations that we forget to look at ourselves and actually ask ourselves what is success?

I have highlighted this term called success because we may actually not understand what the term means. Naturally when you are born and have parents that want the best for you, they feed you, they groom you in cultural values, they make sure they educate you, they send you to college and they expect or hope rather that you get a nice paying job, get married, have kids, build a home and repeat what your parents did for their grandchildren. Anything other than this is what is deemed failure. But is it really?

I have a problem with this traditional structure deemed success. I think our view on success is selfish and it is about competition. Your parent wants to be able to tell your friends parent that "Oh, you know what Crystabel just got a new job for UNDP. How is your son doing?" You know what this is? This is someone pitting their success through their children's achievements against another's. Is this really what the term success feels like?

Ok let me give it to you in another way, when in school they usually rank us on the basis of the results we attain and if you are at the bottom of the ranking you are deemed a failure. I attained my secondary education at Kalibu Academy, they even went as far as ranking our separate classes in order of "ranking" or rate of "success" for instance Form 4A (Smart), Form 4B (Above average) and so on and so forth. I was once promoted to the "A" class and that term I was 4th from bottom but my average grades were 67%. My parents scolded me. Can you imagine that? The same average in a "B" class would have ranked me in the top 10 at the very least. But from that would you consider my grade as a failure? The schools and parents have hoodwinked us to think that we have to be on a certain rank or pedestal to call it success.  

What is your definition of success? Mine is happiness. If you are happy with whatever it is you are doing then I consider that success. It does not matter whether you are a billionaire or just a regular tour guide, if you love what you do and get fulfillment from doing whatever it is that you do then consider yourself successful because there are rich people that are miserable trust me.

So let us kind of circle back to the matter at hand which is where does one start from in business and learning to fail. When I say learning to fail what does that mean? More often than not people who want to undertake a business activity would have an idea of what it would look like, how it would run and the money they would make. Borrowing a leaf from the previous blog post and following the 5 P's I am sure we would all agree that by the time you start a business you are well prepared after assessing the risks and opportunities involved. However, the one thing that people do not account for is failure. Obviously from those definitions you have read earlier failing means to not succeed. In business it means to make a loss, to not turn a profit, to not break even, I am sure you get the point. 

If I invested MK 200,000 in a business and I only sell things worth MK 150,000 only it means you have made a MK 50,000 loss. There could be many factors that lead to this eventuality. It could be that you did not market your products well, it could be that the market just did not like your product or you may have incurred certain costs that you did not anticipate. That is the risk of doing business. You win some and you lose some. That is the game. Most people will look at this scenario and tell themselves or be told by other people that they have failed. But I would tell you that you have not failed but rather you have learnt how to fail.

I know this will take some time for you to understand what I mean but bare with me. There is this popular saying that goes "fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice shame on me". If you made a mistake by setting a price of MK 10,000 per product whereas your competitors were selling the same product at MK 7,500 then obviously consumers will go for the cheaper option. This means you misread the market and whatever you initially thought would work did not and that led to your failure. However I am a glass half full kind of guy, I would take the lesson from this. To me it is either I was too greedy and was looking to exploit the market by overcharging or wherever I get my products from is expensive or there must be a way in which I can cut some unnecessary costs that led me to fix a higher price than my competitor. Do you know what I have just done right there? I have learned to fail. I was fooled once and I'll be damned if I would be fooled again. I will come back better, sharper and with a spring in my step to turn a profit next time around. And that my friends is what differenciates a bad businessperson from a great businessperson. 

A bad businessperson will accept failure whereas a good businessperson will not accept failure. A bad businessperson will listen to people who are not undertaking their business activity or any business for that matter whereas a good businessperson will not listen to detractors who know nothing about their business. A bad businessman will accept that success has eluded them by quitting whereas a good businessperson will successfully fail and learn from failure.

People always ask me this question, "how would you suggest I start a business?" My response is always "Do you know how to fail?" Some people think I am being crazy. Some people are dumbfounded and think I am a self help guru or whatever. Then there are others that ask me "What do you mean? Explain please." I immediately can tell that the latter is willing to learn how to fail and I anticipate that they will make it in business. Sometimes you can learn from a failed business and quit but recharge your batteries and redirect your energy into another business venture. The difference is that they would have learnt how to fail and they will become fearless and take the LEAP OF FAITH.

So first rule in becoming a successful businessperson: LEARN HOW TO FAIL!   

 

Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance: 5 P's

 "We out here rotating under the 5 P's, Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance, y'know what I'm talkin' bout' " - GLC, Poe Mans Dreams (His Vice) by Kendrick Lamar in 2011.

That is the first time I heard this saying/phrase was in 2011. At the time I do not think I fully understood what it meant but I knew it was going to become one of the principles I would carry for a lifetime. But what does it all mean? The phrase says it all but I will try and break it down word for word. I might end up sounding like that annoying primary school teacher that constantly repeats something you know but I have come to realise that as we grow older we tend to complicate things for ourselves which can be simply explained.

Proper

How does one properly do something? As a child you are taught how to do most of the basic things you do on a day-to-day basis. How to brush your teeth, how to tie your shoelaces, how to cross a road, how to act in front of grown ups, how to open a can, 'how to', 'how to', 'how to'! I think you get what I am driving at here. Often these are hereditary traits, passed on from generation to generation. More often than not how you hold a knife and fork is the same way your grandparent will do the same.

So in this context we are talking about how to prepare to make money. An entrepreneur is an individual that manages to bring the factors of production together (land, labour and capital). But they have to prepare. How will I get the land, who's selling it, which area, etc. Who will work for me, how many hours will they work, what will their responsibility be?, etc. How do I get the resources to start up my business, where will the money come from, who can I seek help from?, etc. Properly get ready to answer all these questions. And the best preparation comes from the mind. Prepare mentally, prepare physically and emotionally. How you do things will help you prepare!

Preparation

Prepare! Your journey into any business venture, investment or even a savings plan requires preparation. Layout a well thought out plan. Now that you have thought it out it is time to put it down on a paper. In traditional education they want you to give answers to specific questions and nothing outside of that. In business there are no specific answers. The sooner you realise that the better. Hence why I implore you to write down every single aspect of the business you are about to get into and leave no stone unturned. And even when you do that, you still will not know everything but by that time you would have probably covered at least 80% of each and everything that you are going to go through. You would have prepared your startup capital, you would have prepared your well thought out plan, you would have prepared your target market, you would have prepared for all costs to be incurred, Prepare!

Prevents

Ever heard the saying "prevention is better than cure?" I am sure you are well read and have probably heard this or come across this once or twice. We are currently living in a COVID world and there has never been a time when prevention has been so important. The same way you wear a mask to prevent yourself from contracting COVID-19 is the same way you need to properly prepare yourself to prevent yourself from the risks of conducting business. More often than not people fail in business not because they did not have the resources or the plan but because they were not properly prepared. The life of a businessman is like an oscillation; goes up and down and up and down. You have to prepare yourself for those realities. And what does this prevent? It prevents depression, it prevents unnecessary decision making, it prevents taking bad loans, it prevents you from giving up! Let me emphasise it again; "prevention is better than cure!"

Poor Performance

I have decided to combine the last two P's because they go hand in hand. At the end of the day we invest or get into business to make profit. No one gets into the game to make losses. Hence Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance. In this case we are talking about business performance. How is your business performing? Are you reaching your targeted sales? Are you able to supply on time? Are you able to maintain existing business relationships and create new ones? Are you able to make payroll without hurting the business? Are you able to turn a profit? These are all questions that can be answered by your simple income statement which I spoke about in an earlier post. Is your income increasing? If yes then you are performing well, if not then you need to revisit your initial plan and assess your current operations to find the main root of the problem. Profit equals positive performance. Loss equals poor performance. Hence Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance!

 

SIDE NOTE: ADAPTABILITY

I know that as you get this far you are probably saying I am crazy and you have heard this a million times and it has never worked for me so why must it work now? I hear you and I understand you, I was you. I always asked myself the same question believe me. But I once asked myself this one question, how did those billionaires do it if they came from dirt poor? Were they privileged? Nope, most of them were not. Then how? The ability to adapt is key to success at anything in life and not just in business. Learn how to think on your feet. Procrastination is the enemy of success. Teach yourself how to adapt to situations and always remember that there are two sides to a coin. For every Ying, there is a Yang. Every debit has a credit. Everything that is black has an opposing white colour. I think you get where I am coming from. Learn to adapt and this is something you cannot learn in a classroom, it is a self taught trait.