The Truth About Business Failures
I’m a loser.
You’re a loser.
We’ve all been losers.
Listen, no one goes through life undefeated like the ’72 Dolphins.
We all lose.
At love. At business. At softball. At checkers.
But we also win.
We win when we never give up, when we plan and prepare, when we associate with other winners, and when we deserve it.
We do. We really do.
We win when we deserve it.
The problem is that most people think they deserve it when they really don’t.
Let me prove this to you by sharing another one of my failures with you (as surely you haven’t had your fill of them just yet).
Ah yes, the train wreck continues.
But I say that in a loving, joking manner.
I’m referring to the continual “failing forward” that I always seem to be doing in my business.
For example, this week I had 2 different in-house promotions going on and I’ve been hard at work on 3rd for the week after.
One worked well, and one did okay. But the one that worked also confused the heck out of my readers and resulted in massive customer service work.
Now I learned a lot, including the importance of being absolutely, positively 100% clear and concise with your offer, although I’m sure there was a simpler and easier way for me to learn these lessons rather than going through all of that.
But most importantly, for you, there was an Internet Independence lesson to pass along.
If there is one thing I know after having observed this crazy world for almost 37 years, it’s that you can SURVIVE almost anything.
A great example is Dr. Phil’s diet pill fiasco from a few years ago.
Remember how he released those pills to much (deserved) criticism and eventually was sued for his involvement?
But didn’t stop him from becoming even more popular, and according to MTV makes as much as $80M per year, ranking him in the top 20 entertainers.
NOTE: In NO way am I endorsing fraud or selling diet pills or worse, growing a mustache like Dr. Phil…
…I’m simply making the point that no matter how BIG of a failure you have to deal with, you can always RISE up and overcome it.
You have to look at a failure as just a blip on the radar and blink of the eye in your life.
I mean really, think of all the personal and business struggles you’ve gone through, and you’re still alive, right?
Maybe even a little stronger for it? A LOT stronger for it?
In my little world, I’ve struggled through months of anxiety attacks and my fair share of personal and business problems, but nothing that has even come close to making me even think of quitting.
Every failure just makes me work harder to get better.
Unfortunately, the fear of failure stops so many people from having breakthroughs in their life and business.
It virtually paralyzes good folks from taking action and getting out there to help others.
But you can’t let fear of the unknown hold you down.
Sure, you’re a LOT smarter than “Dr.” Phil, and that will reduce your risk of failure, but you’re never going to have a perfect record.
No one does. Just ask Tom Brady.
Remember, even Donald Trump’s businesses have been bankrupt twice, and there might even be a third time on the horizon.
The Donald is not perfect, his hair’s not perfect, and we aren’t perfect either.
But we sure as heck can’t let our losses stop us from trying new ways to build our website businesses and improve our lives in every area.
And there’s more good news. Dealing with failure gets a lot easier once you’ve dealt with failure.
Once you’ve failed, you realize that “nothing matters”.
Nothing really matters at all.
The sun still comes up.
Your loved ones still love you.
Your dog still loves you and his breath still stinks.
Life goes on.
Business goes on.
And so you get back in the game and go at it again.
Never give up,
Craig Ballantyne
“There are no failures – just experiences and your reactions to them.” – Tom Krause