What Everyone Should Know About Fear of Failure

When we think of failure most of us associate it with a lack of achievement followed by disappointment. This is a very negative way of thinking about failure but many people naturally feel this way. However, successful entrepreneurs think about failure in a completely different way.

Failure can be a positive thing if dealt with correctly and is even considered by some to be a necessary step before achieving success. Most successful entrepreneurs have had failed businesses before they finally found something that worked for them. Many have been bankrupt and some have been bankrupt multiple times.

Be Positive About Failure

Failure is well summarised by Sir Winston Churchill, who once said the following:

"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm."

So if we're supposed to view failure in a more positive way and not let it drag us down then how do we do this? The answer is to view failure as a learning experience, a step towards achieving success. One thing we absolutely must do is learn by our mistakes and consider failure to be important feedback.

If you make a mistake once and fail as a result, then that's fine. Learn from it and move on. However, making the same mistake twice is considered foolish but can easily be avoided by always learning from your mistakes. Failing is also a sign that your plans are not sound. Re-plan and try again.

Try, Try and Try Again

If there's one good way to increase your chances of success it's to try more often. The more attempts you make, the more chance you'll have success. You'll often find that successful people aren't necessarily smarter than your average person. They just have a different mindset and are willing to try more often. Trying more often obviously results in more failures, another good reason not to fear failure.

As many people think so negatively about failure it's quite natural to have a great fear of it. One way to deal with this is write down what you think is the worst that can happen if you fail in your current task. You'll find it probably isn't all so bad and the benefits of success will far outweigh any negatives of failure.

People deal with failure in different ways and the disappointment that follows failure can be hard to handle. Deal with failure however you feel fit, even if it means doing nothing except watching TV for a few days. What you must do soon after is work out where you failed, work out why and learn from your mistakes. Then pick yourself up and try again either with a new idea or a new way of implementing the original idea, effectively a revised plan.

If You're Going to Fail, Fail Fast

The final lesson to learn about failure is to do it fast and often. As odd as this may seem it does make sense. If your new venture isn't working and looks like it may never work as you intended then don't be afraid to drop the idea, move on and do something else.

The key thing to remember here is to fail fast. So many people hang onto an idea long after they've established that it's very unlikely to bring success. As soon as it becomes apparent that an idea isn't going to give you the lifestyle you ultimately desire then it's futile to continue. There are plenty of other ideas that will enable you to achieve your ultimate lifestyle goals.

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