I often tell my clients that some of their best growth in their business comes from the failures that they produce. We have so much opportunity already in our business to drive us towards success but being brave enough to admit to our failure is usually why most do not grow from them. You are a failure at times and that is great. Please do not be ashamed and not embrace that part of your life.
All businesses have a failure rate. These failures are daily, weekly, monthly and yearly. These failures of yours are sometimes very small and sometimes very big but no matter the size we must face them, embrace them and learn from them. In my 20 years of business, I am a genius because I have failed so many times and have also been a great student. Your job is not to be perfect in your business, except when it comes to learning this. I often say it is not what you do when everything is going great that counts. What is more important is what you do when everything is going wrong. I know this. I believe in this and I have seen my results in this. When I have been phenomenal it is because when I was doing horrible I was rebounding and being great. When I did not respond during the hard times and I gave up, then I continued to plum-it.
So what is the best Way to learn from your mistakes? First of all we need to be ready for them before they happen. What this involves is sitting down with the phones off and no interruptions and start contemplating all the things that can go wrong. There is no area of your business that is not important in this exercise. I mean come up with everything from the realistic to the unrealistic. Once you have your list, ask for help from others. Get every disaster or mistake down on paper or on the computer. The next thing you need to do is come up with ways to fix these problems. You need as many fixes as you can think of. Then you can go back to your life. When the trouble arises look at your list and deal with them. If the disaster is not on the list, then add it to it. When the problem is all over, then we must figure out a way to prevail from the failure. I'll give you an example.
When I was in my younger years I had a hauling business. Back in those days I always tried to be the cheap guy so people would hire me. I thought this was the way to go. I was hired to go and clean out a huge garage and an extra room attached to it that had caught fire. I really had no system of how to estimate something like this so I guessed a lot of times. One thing I had learned from a previous disaster in my business was to make sure if there was anything good in the rubble that I would get rights to it. So I made sure of that ahead of time on this job and others. As usual when we were complete with the job, I had under bid the job and came up with a loss. My dumping fees were $850.00 and I was paid $800.00 for the job. This was a huge failure except for one thing; here is what I found in the rubble. I found 4 handguns in great shape worth $1500.00. I found 2 antique cabinets which I sold for$800.00. I found misc yard sale items which I sold for over $500.00. I found tools, a vase(antique) and much more to a tune of over $6,000.00. In the previous loss, I had to turn in anything I found and lost over $1,000.00 on the job. Failures can be great success stories at some point if we learn from them.
Instead of always trying to invent the next product or find ways to redefine who you are as a company or looking for ways to make more money, first take a look around in your company. I know for a fact that you have failed so many times that you already have multi-million dollar ways to raise revenue and improve your company. Do not let these failures become just what they are, and that is failures. That is why I have never failed in business. I am always learning from my mistakes.
If you are looking for a coach to help you learn from your mistakes or change your mindset, please contact me today. I am coach Robert and my email is r.intigh@thegrowthcoach.com or you can find me on the web at www.thegrowthcoach.com/rkintigh I can help you make more money, get real and become clear.
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