5 Rules for an Entrepreneur to Bounce Back After a Failure

Silicon India :8 th October 2012

Successful people always tell in their stories that they have failed a number of times. The only difference between ordinary people and successful is the approach with which they tackle these failures. Failure of any kind can surely slow down entrepreneurs, but it doesn't have to spell disaster. Entrepreneurs are capable of picking up the pieces and come through failures all with a strong self-image.

Here are five rules that an entrepreneur can follow when hit by a failure according to Bill Bartmann of Entrepreneur:

5. Don't pretend it never happened

Many young entrepreneurs are often so concerned to avoid the disgrace of failure that they refuse to admit what has happened to them. Denial mostly results in a lot of other problems, including internal stress and delaying any effective solution.
The late Dale Carnegie, a well-regarded lecturer and author of the bestseller "How to Win Friends and Influence People" said, “when you're quick to admit that you screwed up, your peers will stop holding your feet to the fire and actually begin to comfort you.”

4. Avoid making excuses

Some of them pass away from the truth by sugarcoating their failure in excuses. They tell themselves that all their shortcomings were not their fault.
But ideally entrepreneurs must stop making excuses and focus on a productive goal.

3. Don't confuse a failed goal for a failed person

Sometimes people blame themselves for any and every failure, creating a pattern of negative self-image. Assuming you'll fail is a very dangerous thinking -- and can become a self-fulfilling prediction. Instead of setting up a mental pattern for failure, an entrepreneur should ask himself how he can improve.

2. Remember, you are not alone

People fail to reach goals all the time. Consider football players, for example. They fail multiple times over the course of a long EPL season, in which they play 38 games. And when they fail, they do it in front of millions of TV viewers and on-field spectators. The point is that we're not robots. 

Everyone's bound to fail every once in a while. The key is to never give up. If you keep trying and trying, one day it will happen. Don’t miss out on stuff because it didn’t work out the way you wanted the first time you tried it. Sure, there will be ups and downs, but you should just enjoy the ride.

1. Focus on the lessons learned

If you don’t fail, you are not stretching out of your comfort zone. You are not taking risks. You are not learning things along the way. The only way to survive a failure is to focus on the future. If your mind is distracted by the failures, you are not focusing on the task at hand. When we fail, we can either beat ourselves up about it, or take it as an opportunity to learn from them. In the end, those who fail more, learn more lessons than those who were just lucky. In fact, the biggest failure is to not learn from your failures. Failure is good. It will be your guide to smarter, better decisions.