Business Alone

Now mind you, I am not really a perfectionist in the strictest sense of the word. I can be satisfied with a good personal effort and outcome, even if I know it isn't the very best I might have done.

But I must constantly watch myself in business because of my tendency to fritter away my time on activities that don't require a "perfect" execution.

Which leads me to the subject of this thought. When you fail at doing something, how do you feel and what is your reaction?

You see, when perfectionists fail, they tend to get pretty moody, often emotionally shaken by the catastrophe.

Yes, failure is often a real catastrophe! It's not something you can easily shrug off or dismiss as part of the grand experience of life.

But I've noticed that most successful entrepreneurs and business owners treat failure in a whole different light.

To them, a failure is simply a closed door. They'll find another exit. They'll keep turning other knobs until a different door opens.

To some people, each failure simply means there is one less alternative that needs to be considered in the search for a successful outcome.

The solo business owner would do well to adopt an experimental mindset in the development and operation of his/her business.

Scientific geniuses seem to learn as much or more from their failures as they do from their successes.

They are constantly thinking in terms of testing, modifying, and evaluating. They accept failure and milk it for the lessons it contains.

They move forward after each failure with a little more wisdom and understanding of the problem and with the motivation that they are one step closer to the solution.

Business owners need to adopt this same mindset as they experiment with and test various business operations, products, marketing, and niches.

Failure is not a permanent roadblock - it's just a minor annoyance. Failure is not something to stew over and waste your time on thinking about what might have been.

Let your failures propel and motivate you toward grander success. Keep moving forward. Keep experimenting and challenging the status quo.

The way you keep your failures manageable is to limit your time and financial investment into experiments. Don't bet the farm on developing one product.

Don't spend half your business budget on a fancy new software. Don't invest months of your time on an information product that you hope will be embraced by your customers.

Test, modify, and evaluate over and over again. Experiment. Learn from your failures and move on quickly.