SmallBizResource Blog -- Marketing

Why You Need A Healthy View Of Failure

Posted by Judy Mottl Wednesday, Nov 28, 2007, 02:59 PM ET

No, failure isn't something most people want to contemplate, harp on, or plan for. But you have to do all that and more if you're going to suceed. Failure is a huge boulder everyone must climb over or somehow get past.

That's why it's best to face failure in the face so to speak. As Jeff Cornwall writes in his interesting blog, The Entrepreneurial Mind:

Entrepreneurs seem to operate under the assumption that if they don't plan for failure, it can't happen. If they don't ever address the real worst case, investors and lenders won't think about it.

In his own engaging way Cornwall simply states the facts in a simple manner: failure is high when starting a small operation and there are real reasons why about half of new shops don't make it past the five year point in business.

One big reason is there is no plan for failure - no 'what if the really worst thing happens' plan. Why? Because no one really wants to answer what Cornwall calls the 'hard questions.'

I find it a big challenge to talk about failure with today's young entrepreneurs. The Millennial Generation has been insulated from failure by their helicopter parents. They are in denial of failure to a degree that at times can be alarming.

Marketing