I remember my first C-. Grade 3, history test. It was Halloween and when I got the test back, I cried. Imagine that. I still think about that feeling of guilt and shame, followed by a burning desire to never feel failure again. Painstakingly ensuring I would never make a mistake or be embarrassed.
The good thing was I got good grades out of that experience. The bad thing was, it has haunted me for years. It makes me think twice when about to leap or take action and makes me always question myself, "What if I fail?"
Seth Godin has a brilliant quote on this:
"'But what if I fail?' You will. A better question might be, 'after I fail, what then?' Well if you've chosen well, after you fail you will be one step closer to succeeding, you will be wiser and stronger and you almost certainly will be more respected by all of those that are afraid to try."
But what is 'choosing well'? How can we take the steps needed to harness failure to our benefit and improve ourselves, our teams, and our business in an effective way? I think we need to redefine failure a bit because, in my experience, it's more than what people think it is.
Failure is truly failing if you leave it unaddressed, unchecked and rampant in your mind. The dark cloud of regret or shame will haunt you for weeks or months afterwards. The pain of avoidance is mountainous compared to the pain of addressing failures.
But when faced with failure what can startups do? Honestly, I don't know. Everyone has different processes and plans to fix failures or 'fail fast', but what it really comes down to is choice. You choose to fail and you choose to learn from it. My choice to fail means I commit to a process. A level of understanding for my main failures. It hurts and it works.
Reflect on the Moments After
A 'post-mortem' as Ed Catmull calls it, the moments after you fail are crucial to you learning and growing as an entrepreneur and company -- or even employee. This involves reflecting back on the project and going over your failures. Addressing what you did wrong as an individual and as a team. The important piece here is getting into the mindset that you're not attacking a person. You're attacking a project. Making the next one better by doing so. Yes someone may have failed. That points to a potential problem that needs solving, such as improving the process or team dynamic, not the person themselves.
Own Your Story
Stories are incredibly powerful and extremely important for startups. So when you do fail, and believe me it is a WHEN not an IF, you'll need to know how to talk about it. Investors, friends, customers or potential partners will ask where you've come from and where you're going. So get your story straight.Pamela Slim's book 'Body of Work' finds 'the thread that ties the story together' including your triumphs and failures. It's worth a read. A main lesson was that a failure is a key part of your journey. Failing can be a stepping stone to something greater, or a coming of age story for a startup that learned from a major mistake. If you leave a failure out of your overall story, you could be selling yourself short. Address your failures, then talk about them. There's no other way around it.
Practice Daily
Creativity isn't a talent, it's a way of operating -- John CleeseJohn Cleese has failed countless times and lives to tell the next joke. He does this by realizing that failure isn't a singular event and if you ignore it, it won't go away. It is a part of his process to do work that might fail or might not. I firmly believe he failed constantly. How else could he define a creative process so well refined that his work defined an era? Do you think he did that by 'talent' or chance?
Like any skill, working with failure is a daily practice. It doesn't mean you need to talk about it everyday, but it does mean you need to check yourself when you over criticize, stop yourself from taking a risk or keep repeating the same mistake. Failure is more than one event.
So if you decide to work, and fail, know that there's more required. Failing is not enough. You need to learn from them to put you in a better position to succeed the next time.