This is another great post from Communications expert, Laura Petrolino, Founder of Flying Pig Communications (originally posted on FlyingPigCommunications.com). Before you throw in the towel following a defeat, make sure you see the benefits of redefining your failure. You may be surprised by what you gain from the experience.
This applies to business and life:
Step One: Find the Opportunities
In every failure lies numerous opportunities. Lessons learned, doorways opened, doorways closed (yes, sometimes a closed door can be one of the best opportunities). Find them, understand what they mean and analyze how pursuing those opportunities could affect your business.
Step Two: Pursue the Opportunities
Does the shoe fit? Wear it. Seeing and analyzing opportunities is fabulous if you are philosopher, but really will take you nowhere if you are an entrepreneur. Go. Do. Pursue.
Step Three: Repeat
Face it, life as an entrepreneur is one failure after another. Almost every definition of ‘entrepreneur’ out there includes the world RISK, somewhere in it. Risk is always a partner with failure.
If you want to succeed in life and business, it is important to stop attaching a negative connotation to the word failure. The definition of failure is: The condition or fact of not achieving the desired end or ends. Fabulous! Most likely those end results weren’t what you wanted to achieve in the first place. Failure gives you the opportunity to do better. Take it!
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Laura Petrolino is Managing Director of Flying Pig Communications, a communications and business consulting firm which focuses on the needs of startups, small business and non-profits. She also serves as Chief Communications Officer at Ignite Venture Partners, which brings together consulting, capital, and concept incubation to build value in businesses of all sizes and stages, and across industries.. Find her on twitter @lkpetrolino and @365startups
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