We all want to talk about success in our small business, don’t we? How we overcame this obstacle to come out the other end successful. Or how we fought for our vision to create the business we want. The media is filled with stories of how ‘one man (or woman) beat the odds and became success.’
Yet what we seldom hear about are the business lessons that led to that success. Lessons that weren’t born from knowing exactly what to do and succeeding. But business lessons that were forged out of trying something and having it not go the way you want. Business lessons that come out of failure.
Failure provides an immense opportunity.??Sure, success provides opportunity as well. But I’ll venture to guess that if you consider the most valuable lessons you’ve learned in your business, they come from things that didn’t work. Or at least didn’t work the way you expected.
The opportunities failure provides are much different than the opportunities found in success.
First off, when you’re successful it’s easy to get complacent. It’s easy to stop learning, to rest on your laurels, or to just try to repeat what made you successful over and over again. But when you fail, you’re forced to changed. You’re forced to evaluate and reevaluate why what you tried didn’t work. The lessons you take away from trying something and having it not work can be invaluable to your business.
Secondly, success provides stability - which can be great - while failure provides uncertainty, unease and hunger. Have your first major setback in your business and you’ll find out how much you really want to be in business. And that’s a good thing to know.??
Lastly, failure is what leads to success. Before you can succeed, you have to try. And in the trying comes a likelihood of failing. But failure simply means you tried. Everyone’s heard the famous quote by Thomas Edison when he talked about all the failure that led up to inventing the??incandescent??lightbulb:
“I didn???t fail ten thousand times. I successfully eliminated, ten thousand times, materials and combinations which wouldn???t work.”
I don’t his outlook as some trite sound bite about how sexy failure is. Rather, I see the brilliance in setting a goal and working toward that goal, regardless of the odds. I see the perseverance it takes to be successful - as a parent or spouse, in life and in business. I see the hope that Thoreau expressed so well when he said:
“If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”
The key here is ‘advances confidently in the direction of.’ That’s how to approach your business. That’s how to fail well. And that’s how to meet with ’success unexpected in common hours.’
What are your thoughts?
译文:
为什么创业必须经历失败
我们总喜欢谈论创业历程中获得的那些成功，谈论我们如何跨越障碍、另辟蹊径、赢取胜利，如何努力梦想、开创事业、得偿所愿，难道不是吗？充斥各大媒体的更都是讲述那些如何抓住机遇获得成功的故事。
然而我们却很少听闻那些能够引领我们走向成功的商业课程。这些课程绝非告诉我们如何循规蹈矩、按部就班的做事，而是告诉我们如何一如既往、矢志不渝的努力。它们是一次次失败的总结和积累。
失败可以提供很多的机会，这一点无可否认，可成功也不例外。但是我敢断言：你在创业过程中获得的最宝贵的一课来自失败—至少是失意。
在失败中获得的机会与在成功中获得的相比有很大的不同。
首先，一旦功成名就，你会很容易变得洋洋自满、变得停滞不前、变得坐吃山空甚至幻想一次次成功会接踵而至。可要是一败涂地呢，你就会改弦易辙、穷善其身，就会一日三省、原始反终。从事与愿违和事倍功半中学到的东西对你的事业可谓是价值连城。
其次，成功会使你信心百倍，失败却会使你意气消沉、心神不安和食不果腹。可是，经历了事业上的初次巨挫，你就会最真切的明白自己的奋斗目标，而这才是最重要的。
最后，失败乃成功之母。一分耕耘，一分收获。尝试的结果可能还是失败，可失败却证明你曾经尝试过。大家都知道，爱迪生在谈到失败指导他发明白炽灯泡时说过一句很有名的话：
“我并不是失败了一万次，而是成功的排除了一万种不适合做电灯的材料。”
在此引用他的观点，就像引用的一段原声广播，似乎略显过时。我也并不想以此证明失败是多么的迷人。抛开所谓的机会不谈，我更欣赏立下目标 并为之奋斗的精神而散发出的那种生命之光、更欣赏作为一名家长或是伴侣为了在生活和事业上获得成功的那种坚拔之志、更欣赏梭罗说下面这番话时所表达出来的那种希望之情：
“一个人如果冲着梦想勇往直前、为了理想的生活殚精竭虑，他就会在一个不寻常的时刻获得意想不到的成功。”
关键就是“冲着······勇往直前”，这是如何获得事业成功、如何败而不失、如何在一个不寻常的时刻获得意想不到的成功的原因所在。
您又是如何看待失败的呢？