W. Patric Gregory, a business owner, on accepting failure

As a business owner, you are likely optimistic by nature. After all, the allure of success is commonplace in any entrepreneur's DNA. However, to understand what success means, you must learn to identify, experience, and accept failure. Though success stands as your ultimate goal, failure is equally essential to cultivating, and eventually mastering, the art that is business ownership.

You’ve heard it before, from many experts and business coaches: a certain amount of failure is good. It helps you to learn, adapt, and come back stronger than ever.

Here are some tips we hope you find helpful when confronted with the inevitably of occasional – or even frequent – failure.

Take time, but not too much

Failure can hurt – especially when it comes in the face of a bold idea you’ve been shaping and nurturing through years of hard work. It can sting you personally and take time to mend. It can even gnaw away at your confidence and self-esteem. The first step, therefore, is to take time to accept failure as an inevitable part of the journey and to acknowledge the specific failure that’s presented itself. This is particularly crucial for fledgling entrepreneurs – those who haven’t experienced that kind of rejection in their entire lives.
Do some soul searching. Get realigned with your goals, and evaluate the reasons they weren’t met this time around. But keep the process brief – a few days to a week at most. Don’t wallow in self-reflection. Dwelling too long on failure can devolve into self-pity and instill a subconscious reluctance to take chances in the future.

Identify necessary changes

If your idea or plan fell flat this time, it means you’ll probably need to change aspects of your current approach. Identify those changes and prioritize the tasks that will result in the needed changes to your business plan. At the same time, consider leaving unrelated tasks on the back burner for the time being – you can always return to them later on. The important thing is to analyze the failure at hand and make progress on the corrective action you’ve identified.

Consider who you’re working with

If your failure is because of a weak or unhealthy business partnership, it may be time to reconsider that relationship’s place in your overall plan. Good things happen around good people. So make sure you surround yourself with them – those individuals and partners who can contribute proactively to your success. This means initiating appropriate networking, (re)building the confidence necessary to garner more attention, finding winners who can help you win, and cultivating those relationships to your advantage.

Treat good news as incidents, bad news as trends

One of the best ways to recover from failure is to mitigate its impact before it happens. One of the best ways is to do that is to anticipate it, and one of the best ways to do that is to pay attention to the warning signs.
Yes, you’re an optimist, but don’t be a cockeyed optimist. Don’t think good news means the party has started, and don’t think bad news is an isolated even that won’t be repeated. Rather, treat good news as an isolated event, and treat bad news as a trend that may be here to stay for a while. This approach will keep you from celebrating prematurely or excessively, and it will keep your antenna tuned to a frequency that picks up warning signs.

Hold yourself accountable

Consistent with all of these steps, be sure to avoid the common – and often tempting – trap of playing the “blame game.” Take responsibility for the failures, or at least the pieces of them that were your fault or fell under your control. Passing all blame to your co-workers and partners will quickly establish a toxic environment in which your business will spiral downward and make success unlikely if not hopeless. Hold others accountable when they should be held accountable, but live with a bias that starts with introspective and self-criticism before taking others to task.

About the Author

W. Patric Gregory is an experienced business professional from Glastonbury, Connecticut. Patric currently serves as the owner and CEO of Highway Safety Corp, a company that has contributed to the highway construction industry for over 40 years. As leader of the company's senior management team, Patric is a seasoned strategist and innovator in his field.

To learn more about W. Patric Gregory, click here.