Are you afraid of failure? I don’t know how many times p
eople have said to me, “What if I fail…” My usual response is, “So what? Join the club. Everyone fails. It’s what you do with it that matters.” But recently I heard the perfect quote for these situations. Sochiro Honda, the founder of Honda Motor Company said… “Success is 99% Failure.” That quote is a little confusing.
Here’s another one from him which makes it more clear: “Success represents the 1% of your work which results from the 99% that is called failure.”
Failure is a stepping stone to success. It’s a natural progression. Instead of failure being something to be afraid of, it is to be embraced. When you were a child and took your first steps, did you ever fall? You probably did, just like everyone else. What about the first time you got on a bicycle? Probably you fell as well.
If you pick up golf tomorrow, do you expect to play on the PGA tour next week? Or join NBA the first time you hold a basketball in your hands? No. In sports, you have to practice.
In science, it’s about a process of experimentation until a new discovery is made.
In business, it is about testing different approaches until you find the one customers love.
In advertising, it’s about optimizing each step of your campaign.
Every offer isn’t going to be a home run. Every email isn’t going to produce a landslide of sales. And playing it safe and doing what everyone else does isn’t the route to innovation and improvement.
Often the greatest improvements occur when you try something from outside of your industry. It’s a risk, but the greatest rewards come from the greatest risks.
In investing, they talk about managing risk. If you invest money in CDs, you have very little risk. But you also get almost no return. In fact, once you count inflation, you’re often getting negative returns. Stocks, bonds, real estate, and commodities like gold all introduce additional risks. But there are also greater returns available here.
But where’s the greatest potential return for your investment? It’s in your own backyard in your own business. I’ve never earned a return in any outside investment like I have in my own business. Not even close! But, that also means you need to take some intelligent risks in your own business.
Quit running from fear of failure. Manage your risk. Keep mistakes small. Let the winners multiply and run!
