Your past failures as a startup founder can be a good lesson for future ventures. Startup failure is a common thing, don’t be afraid of it. Almost every month, half a dozen startups shutting their business being failed to catch any market attention for months. Again, there are plenty of examples where CEOs of a failed startup embarking another one only to set another example of failure. However, some examples could also be placed where a failed startup founder has become successful in their second or third project. What you need is right learning from failures. Founders get praises and even sympathy which they carry for a long time only start over again with another startup and fail again with no apparent reason.
All these have been happening so rampantly that failure of startups has become a common matter. Founders carry everywhere the defunct business as a memento and speak about their efforts and challenges like a defeated king in a fierce battle. Many of them blame time and luck. It is a pity that they walk away without learning the right things and without learning what went wrong in that project.
In the world of startups, there is no assurance that you will win always. It takes lots of courage to admit the failure. But, you should dive as deep as possible to pinpoint what went wrong and what approaches were wrong? When you dwell deep into the whole matter instead of repeating your startup stories everywhere, you will get some clues for sure.
Accept the fact that startup venture is a challenge and you don’t know in what form it will appear
Being a founder of a startup you should be a realist. You should accept the fact that not everything will go right every time. Every startup venture is challenging no matter whether you are in a well-known market or creating a whole new market. So, you have to be prepared for all circumstances. A strong mindset to cope up with any problem and aptness in finding solutions are necessary for survival and success. You have to understand failure from every possible dimension; only then, you will be able to sail through turbulent environment protecting your startup.
Accept the reality: It was a failure
If it is over and no more hope left, you should go for thorough scrutiny and do a deep scan to understand what went wrong and why? It helps to analyze every single element of your startup. Also, it helps you determine the lessons learned to endorse a better outcome in future. It is the most important aspect of risk management in future projects. It often happens that in spite of a great product or service, people fail to catch the market. It mostly happens because they pay much attention to designing a great product or service paying lesser attention to the market.
In any situation, there are always hundreds of ways you could do a thing differently. The key is having enough inner strength to introspect and figure out what went wrong, what could be accomplished in a better way, what ingredients can help you build a compact strategy. This strategy would be one to help you deliver a comeback.
Never cage yourself with negativities
When some startup founders dismiss their failure and celebrate the hard work, some others find it hard to cope up with the failure. They blame themselves for failure and act as if it is the end of the world. But, this is nothing but wastage of time. Surrounding yourself with negativities will spoil time and eventually create some psychological issues. Better, find the faults, fix the issues, brush up your skills, recruit right personnel, and start all over again with right strategy.
Identify the positive aspects and take the next step towards success
Even if it was a failure, not everything was failed. There might be some aspects that worked perfectly and gave positive results. Accumulate whatever usable from the rubble; use it to build the foundation of your next project. It needs strong willpower and introspection. You have to see the positive aspects of everything. You could have built a strong network of suppliers and customers, you could have developed goodwill in a small market, or you could have built small but reliable professional contacts. It can be anything, still, this is your asset, use it once again and move on.
While doing so, you actually learn from your past failures and these learning direct you to the right direction this time. There will be lots of ups and downs on the way but that should not halt your progress. Your strategies and attitude should overcome all roadblocks. Adversities are natural, nothing in life easily achievable. When you actually learn from your mistakes, you will not make the same mistakes again. If you do so, you have actually not leant anything.
Conclusion
Whatever comes in life, don’t be hopeless or don’t make any excuse. Only, timid-hearted people speak of failure and see negativities in everything. Always be ready to learn from the mistakes you committed in past and have the right attitude to apply them in future. Thing happen and they will continue to happen, you can either learn from it or leave everything to run away from it. It’s all your choice. Be brave enough to choose a wise one.
