While this may be difficult to hear, in my experience failure is fundamental to being an entrepreneur. The truth is, the odds are not real good when you start a new business. While we have all heard the stories of people who have an idea, start in the garage and end up on Wall Street, we hear about those stories because they are so rare and they are news.
The untold stories are those who have an idea, start in the garage, and end in the garage. Failure is a part of being an entrepreneur. If we are afraid to fail, however, the ideas never get to the garage.
If failure is fundamental to entrepreneurship, the the key is learning how to fail. If you spend a lot of money and a lot of time on an idea and it does not work, then you have lost a lot of money and a lot of time. You may have learned a lot, but at a great cost. While this sounds so simple, for most entrepreneurs it takes a while to figure out.
What I have finally learned is that if you invest a little money and little time and the idea is not successful, you still have learned but have not lost a lot. I like to call this Rapid Cycle Failure. Develop an idea and get it going as quickly and for a little money as possible. Most will probably fail, but if you do several you have a chance that at least one will be successful.
This is really a hard lesson for entrepreneurs. I believe the reason is that most of us have a dream of hitting a home run. And home runs must require a lot of planning and obviously a lot of money. Most of the time we never get the idea to the garage, and if we do, our odds are not very good.
Learn to fail quickly and inexpensively. Always learn from the failure and occasionally you will hit that home run.
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