Failure. It’s not something that any of us look forward to. In fact, I’d bet that a large majority of us do our best to avoid failure of any kind.
We wake up each day with goals to succeed at one thing or another, we don’t wake up and think, “Okay, I think I’ll fail at this today.” Why would we do that?
Failure brings up loads of emotions, that we try really hard to avoid. However, in my opinion, failure is 100% necessary!
“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default.” — J.K. Rowling
Like J.K. Rowling so eloquently puts it, if you choose to never put yourself in a position where you could fail, you’ll have failed by default. It’s time to stop being SO timid and afraid of what might happen if we make that big scary sales call, or write that book. Instead, focus on what WILL happen if you don’t do the things you desire…
You’ll remain stuck!
As many of you already know, in March of 2017, I had to make one of the hardest decisions of my life… Whether I should close FITzee Foods or not.
When I opened FITzee Foods, I didn’t go into it with the plan that at the end I’d end up with a failure. No way!! I opened my doors and from the moment I started I was out there raising money, increasing our revenues, networking, doing all of the things that would help make my business a success.
Towards the end, I saw the writing on the wall. Our finances weren’t in a great spot and I just couldn’t keep up with all the other prepared meal companies that were coming onto the scene, offering free food.
I had to step back and accept that FITzee Foods was coming to an end. Prior to this decision even three of my main competitors had closed thier doors.
When I closed my doors, it took me a good couple weeks to move on. One thing that has helped, and has almost been therapeutic, has been sharing my personal story of failure to now, success! As well as sharing the stories from my other guests who join me weekly on my podcast, Success Unfiltered.
While closing FITzee Foods was one of the toughest decisions I’ve had to make in the last 20 years, it has led to some incredible success with my new company, The Pitch Queen, and my podcast, Success Unfiltered.
To Fail is to Work Hard for Success
My guest on Success Unfiltered, Judy Edwards, believes that there is no one that has experienced massive success, without a few failures under your belt.
Judy is the creator of the highly successful Squatty Potty, a product I am obsessed with.
Though Squatty Potty has been successful, it doesn’t mean that Judy and her husband haven’t had their fair share of failures in the past. Judy shared that she and her husband have had to close 4 businesses, losing upwards of 2 MILLION dollars.
Can you imagine? This failure has never kept Judy or her family down for long, they’ve always jumped right back up and got back down to business.
When you think about it, $2M is an incredible amount of money, but that doesn’t take into account the time lost, or the energy or the amount of gray hairs the stress of a closure can cause. It all just keeps piling up!
Despite those failures, Judy has always looked at the positive in her business (and her relationship – she and her husband have been together for almost 51 years), which has made all the difference when things get tough.
You can do the same thing!
Even if you’ve been hit with an unexpected failure, you can come back. After you’ve done your wallowing, come back and review what happened. What can you do different next time, what would you leave the same?
Take that data, and keep moving. If you’ve had to close a business completely, when you start again, make sure you’re including things that you loved about your last business, and leaving out what you hated. If you’re just getting back on your feet from a massive sales rejection, getting back out there, making another call, will help get your head right back in the game.
Remember without failure, there can’t be success!
Self-Doubt
Self-doubt can be one of the biggest success killers around. If you don’t believe in yourself or your products or services, it’s unlikely that you’ll make it very far. In order for others to believe in you, you must believe in yourself.
Judy shared with me that one of her biggest NO’s, even bigger than closing her any previous businesses, was the NO’s she was telling herself.
Judy was 61 years old when she started Squatty Potty, and her husband was the same age too! They knew they had an incredible product. Something that could really help people, but they didn’t know how to market it.
People don’t often want to admit that they poop, even though we ALL do it!
They thought about marketing it medically, but they couldn’t make any medical claims, so they ended up deciding to go with… “it can help you have a better elimination” and explaining how it worked.
Even with this marketing in place, they struggled because no one wanted to come up to their booths at trade shows or other places, which led to Judy’s unease on if the Squatty Potty would ever make it.
They decided to move their marketing online, and began seeing some incredible success and were even featured on Dr. Oz and The Howard Stern show.
Now, Squatty Potty is known worldwide and a very successful product that helps millions of people poop with ease!! Don’t let that self-doubt keep you from experiencing real success.
In Conclusion
When it comes to failure, I feel for each of you. It can be so hard when it comes to making a really difficult decision like Judy or I have had to make.
You have to decide whether you continue with what you’re doing or maybe you decide it’s time to pull the plug and find your success on the other side.
Either way, know that a failure doesn’t mean it’s over. It is simply the next step to your success!
