Failure is not an option. It’s an opportunity. Take it.
Whether it’s a project, a product, a business, a division of a company, getting laid off, whatever. Failure is an opportunity, an opening, a chance to move forward in ways you have not considered before.
So take risks – calculated ones. Don’t worry about failure. You may not get the client, the company may need to change direction, your partner(s) may betray you, you have to dissolve the business and start over. A million things will happen. And each of those things opens a door to something better.
Steve Jobs, who was a founder of Apple in the 70’s, wound up losing a power struggle with the board of directors (guys he probably helped bring on) in 1985. He resigned from Apple and founded NeXT, a computer platform which was bought out by….Apple. That brought Jobs back to the company. He served as its CEO from 1997 until 2011.
And on the subject of Apple, Decca Records turned down a recording group because they didn’t like their sound and because guitars were on their way out. That group later founded a recording label named Apple.
Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team.
Lucille Ball was turned down from drama school – they told her she was wasting her time and that she “was too shy to put her best foot forward.”
Walt Disney was fired from a newspaper because they said he lacked imagination and had no original ideas.
Thomas Edison said “”I have not failed 1000 times. I have successfully discovered 1000 ways to NOT make a light bulb…”
You can say with all these examples, and the rest is history.
When you fail, you become more experienced, and thus more valuable at the helm.
Or as Woody Allen said, “If you’re not failing every now and again, it’s a sure sign that you’re not doing anything very innovative.”
Sandra Holtzman teaches CEO 035: Licensing.