There's no getting around it:failure is no fun. It is also an important part of the life of an entrepreneur. Successful entrepreneurs, from Bill Gates to Vera Wang, have colossal failures under their belt. I would even say that if an entrepreneur has never experienced failure, he is not taking enough risks. Fortunately, this unpleasant experience is not in vain. Especially in business, failures can be used to your advantage, but only if you learn how to overcome them effectively.
Related: How to bounce back from failure
I've had my fair share of failures. An example is Zeadoo, a personalized starter web page. It is still available today, but it is a failure as it lacks the proper strategy to support it and a method to monetize it. This experience, and others, have contributed to my understanding of failure and how to recover from it. Here are some tips to get you back on your feet after a business idea.
1. Acknowledge and admit your failure.
This is the hardest part of crash recovery, but also the most important. Shock and denial are normal feelings, especially if you're really invested in your idea. It can be difficult to sift through these powerful emotions to identify failure.
Remember that as a business owner, you might be too close to see the situation clearly. Listen to your partners, employees and friends. Sometimes they will recognize the moment to cut losses long before you do. Only by identifying and accepting failure can you recover from it.
2. Practice self-care.
Failure is an emotional experience. Shock and denial can be followed by disappointment and even dramatic physical changes, such as a drop in serotonin.
Allow yourself to feel these feelings, then work through them. Don't indulge, but don't deny the emotional consequences of failure either. Failure makes us feel weak and unworthy. This in turn reduces our motivation to try again. To combat this, we must nurture our inherent abilities. Remind yourself of what you are good at and surround yourself with inspiration.
3. Identify why your business failed.
After dealing with the initial emotions associated with failure and finding yourself on solid ground, the real work begins. Analyzing what went wrong with your failed business idea and why your efforts weren't successful is the most productive and fruitful part of failure. Without understanding exactly why you failed, you cannot use that failure to inform future decisions.
Zeadoo taught me important trading lessons about profit strategy, but failures can also teach you lessons crucial on your personality as an entrepreneur. For example, Matt Cooper, VP of Elance-oDesk, learned from his failed first attempt that he tended to go too fast with business ideas. Knowing this, he set clear deadlines with future startups to ensure he scaled at a sustainable pace.
4. Redefine success.
After re-examining your failure with a clear head, it's time to put it behind you. Take the lesson with you, but redefine what success means.
Choose a new project. Engage in something you are passionate about. Creating new goals will excite you and give you the opportunity to apply what you've learned from your failed business.
Less than a year after saying goodbye to her first web startup, CEO Kathryn Minshew embarked on the development of The Muse, a now thriving career development platform. After the failure, she recovered and found a new channel for the creative and entrepreneurial energy that ultimately fueled her success.
5. Stay alert.
Failures can make us more risk averse or lower our confidence, even after think we are fully recovered.
When starting a new project after failing, it is important to monitor your behavior. Do you avoid risks or are you particularly hard on yourself? These habits could be holding you back. Be aware of the possible effects of a past failure on your productivity. Identify those bad habits and fix them.
As CEO Allison O'Kelly writes, “Winning is about acknowledging failure, adapting to the trajectory, and stepping out of the other side a little stronger and much wiser.” With these tips, you can turn your failure into a stepping stone to success.
Related: Why failure is good for success
