It is OK to fail

It is OK to fail

Talking about failure may seem strange but in reality we all fail sometimes.

Failure is nearly always a positive thing. It means that you are attempting greater things, trying something a bit difficult or taking some risks. We often view it in a very negative way. In fact it is important to always take the positives. This applies not just to things that we do ourselves but also to our team. The very worst leaders will berate a member of staff that fails.

Leadership

A good leader will try to understand why and will help the individual to learn and do better next time. The good leader will also recognise that a staff member’s failure is very often down to the leader failing, either to explain it properly, not giving them the tools to do the job, not ensuring you train them properly, having unreasonable expectations, or for many other reasons.

Failure in the business tells us we need to do something new or different.

As Mark Zuckerberg once famously said “Its risky NOT to take chances”

If you are too afraid of failing, you can’t possibly do what you need to do to succeed. The key is to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. When your efforts are met with failure, you know you are on to something; because on the flip-side of that is a real, substantial accomplishment that doesn’t come easy.

To successfully grow our businesses we need to continually try something different or new, these efforts are going to be sometimes met with failure, that we can learn from. The learning in itself can often be valuable, just to help us move forward.

Don’t be afraid to fail. Be afraid not to fail. If you are not trying and failing then you really are not moving forward and growing.

Failure is essential for business growth.