Learning to Accept Failure

by Zack Hajduk, Owner of Zack’s Holiday Lighting

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We are taught in school what to do in order to be successful in life, business, or anything we pursue.  However, what we are not really taught about is how to deal with failure.  I have failed at tasks at work, with my business, and in my personal life but it was not until I hired a local small marketing firm to do my marketing that I actually thought about failure.  One of the questions asked of me was “In your opinion, what are the top three skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur?”  It was late at night so I decided to Google skills of an entrepreneur.  What came up was a list of 17 skill sets all of entrepreneurs should have and one of those skills was accepting failure.

Upon reading that, my mind went into overdrive, thinking of all the times that I failed.  This is what led me to write about today’s blog topic.  Failing sucks and it is a blow to a person’s confidence.  For some people, they take failure pretty hard and take a while to get back on their feet while others are back on their feet the next day.  An entrepreneur has to understand that there will be mistakes made on the road to success.  Understanding and accepting those mistakes will help you down the road.

The road to success is met with blood, sweat, and tears and it is not always at the beginning.  Some people make tons of mistakes when they first start out but if they learn from those, then down the line they will become more successful because they learned how to prevent that failure.  Other people have great success when they first begin something but make mistakes later in their career.  It is easy to give up when you make a mistake and call it quits.  Those who persevere and learn from their mistakes will be successful.  To quote Thomas Edison, “’I haven’t failed.  I found 10,000 solutions that don’t work.’”  That same mindset can still be applied today.

I have only had my business for four years and I have made tons of mistakes along the way.  Each year I change a couple things that I did the previous year and had better results.  Seeing my business make progress each year gives me confidence that I am making the right changes and that I am on a slow and steady path to success.  I know I am going to make more mistakes in the future and I am going to have to accept them, as harsh as some can be, and learn from them.

Everybody experiences failure and it can be harsh yet everybody can learn from those experiences.  How people learn from those experiences depends on the person.  Some like to be alone to collect their thoughts, some need to talk it out with a close friend or family member, or write it down as I am doing right now.  I guess failure is something that can only be taught in school to an extent.  The rest has to be learned in the real world since each person is different.  The only person keeping you from being successful is you.  So I will leave you with my favorite quote by Audrey Hepburn, “’Nothing is impossible, the word itself says ‘I’m Possible!’”