Have you ever heard the saying “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail”? It’s true that planning is an important part of being successful and it’s generally not a good idea to go into a situation without having planned adequately. But on the other hand, failure is not as bad of a thing as some people make it out to be. In fact, many business experts agree that preparing for failure is an important part of the journey, like planning to fail if you will.
People fall off the train to success when they come up with a brilliant plan and it doesn’t work out how they had hoped. They tend to fail and believe it is the end of the line. But failure is not the end of the line – you can pick yourself up, learn from the experience, and move forward on your march to success. Here’s why being ready for failure is actually one of the best moves in your career.
It eliminates the fear of the future
Many people hold themselves back in the fear that they might fail. But understanding that failing is a real possibility, and having a plan for if it happens gives you the confidence to just go for it. Failure stings much less if you are ready for it. Say you want to start a business, but you worry that it won’t take off. Have a backup plan like an emergency fund to keep you going and a timeline that tells you when it’s time to stop using the emergency fund. Maybe have a backup investor that you can reel in if things get tough. Now you are able to start that business without worrying that things may not go well in the first few months.
Failure makes you better
Even if the idea and the backup plan have not worked, you need to realize that you haven’t wasted money or time, you’ve learned a valuable lesson. It doesn’t feel like it’s worth the loss at this point but as almost all successful business people will tell you, it’s worth it in the long run. There may be a chance to try again and you’ll know how to do things differently and more efficiently next time.
Failure gives you a new perspective
Failure often gives us the insight we need in terms of the direction we are going. After failing, you may realise that the idea was not for you and that you should try something different – and that’s okay! Maybe you tried your hand in the financial field and it didn’t work out, but you found out that you are very creative and began to excel in marketing or design. You may never have discovered this about yourself unless you had tried and failed!
It builds resilience
Failing is hard the first few times, but the more you do it, the easier it becomes. We’re not talking about an endless cycle of achieving nothing and going into despair, but rather failing, learning from it, and moving forward. You’ll become tougher and more confident to try newer and bigger things – and if it takes you more years than you had planned to reach your life’s purpose, so what? It’s better than giving up on the first try and never reaching it at all!
