Failing forward means that when you do experience failures, you use that failure as a learning experience and move forward with your venture knowing much more than you did. This sign of a savvy marketer can greatly improve your odds of future success.
Learning from each setback you experience is valuable to your business because you’ll know better how to handle situations that could keep holding you back. To assume that failure is the end means that you fall backward and into business oblivion – and you may not be able to recover.
Respond immediately to each sign of failure, whether it’s a complaint from a customer, a failure in a launch or anything that might need a solution. Heading off potential future problems is one way you learn from a failure. Your response to each problem should be rapid and decisive.
Failure can be like a wound that doesn’t quit bleeding until you face it, both on a conscious and unconscious level. You’ve got to stop the bleeding externally by being decisive, but you also need to address the demoralizing effect that failure has on your psyche.
You may have the tendency to curl up in a fetal position and let the world go by for awhile, but that’s the time you must pick yourself up, dust yourself off and become motivated again. That’s the way you fall forward after a failure.
Your confidence in the ability to succeed may have suffered a bit hit that could make you hesitant to take future risks. After you analyze the failure you’ve just suffered, make it a point to pursue other risks with caution, but with the enthusiasm that will take you to the top and beyond. Don’t let one failure make you shy away from risks.
Business failures can also make you feel less in control of your business and yourself. Chances are, part of the failure was because of inadequate planning and preparation – and maybe lack of complete effort on your part.
Focus on what you are in control of and assess how you can use that control to be better prepared for future endeavors. Think of different ways to approach the same situation you failed at and next time the problem rolls around, you’ll be much better prepared to meet the challenge.
Failure can often destroy our self-worth. Take the time to reassess your capabilities and qualities that you have and that can take you to future success. And, remind yourself of what success means to you and why you’re pursuing the goals you set for yourself. That’s failing forward.