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!
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