There’s Nothing Taboo About Failure

Hi, my name is Kristen and I am a handbag junkie.

In fact, I love them SO much that I spent a very large sum of money to design and sell my own. Unfortunately, though I cherished those handbags and saw them having a unique value proposition, my business never did become profitable. I really thought it was on the brink a couple of times but we all know close only counts with horseshoes and hand grenades.

I lamented my losses for a long while (and continue to do so when I send my monthly loan payments to the bank). Was I really a failure? I mean, from a financial perspective, it definitely was an epic fail. But if I came away armed with useful knowledge and constructive feedback to apply to my next endeavor, maybe it could be chalked up to a lesson learned, albeit a very expensive one.

I have a close friend who is a co-owner of a man’s skincare line, a very difficult niche market to penetrate. But she believed in her product and drove hard to achieve success with her target. We spoke yesterday and she was completely deflated that her last-ditch efforts to generate revenue yielded no benefit at all. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in the hole and she’s come to the realization that it’s time to say goodbye.

Let me just stop here and tell you, it is HEART WRENCHING to slam the door on your hopes and dreams and downright depressing to see all of your hard work and effort crumble around you. It’s like a bad breakup story. Making the decision to pull the plug is a very humbling experience. Realizing that you couldn’t make it happen? Man, that’s a tough pill to swallow.

I know this all sounds a little dramatic, but if you’ve ever been in the situation, you know all too well how devastating a loss it is. And for a while, you question and second-guess and lament some more, but it won’t change the overall experience. Sometimes, it’s cathartic to just get it all out there, to share your story with anyone who’ll listen. If you have truly lived and learned, you know where you made mistakes. When they are brought to light, maybe next time around you’ll know which pitfalls to avoid. It’s no longer taboo to hold it all in.  More and more entrepreneurs are coming forward with their own stories.  We’re in good company.

Here’s what I can tell you…don’t be too dejected. You can’t crush true entrepreneurial spirit. Don’t give up on it. If it truly resides within you, you’ll achieve your goals. And all the postmortems and lessons learned you’ve collected over time will make you that much more successful in your future endeavors.  I really believe that…

Embrace and nurture that spirit because once you channel it, you can’t turn it off. It’s what makes you a driver. I LOVE the feeling of coming up with new ideas and strategizing about how to make them come to fruition. The creativity charges me.

So even though things may look dismal now, tomorrow, they’ll look a bit better. And the following day, even better than that, until you finally come away with a lot of clarity and direction about how you can launch the next big thing.