Are You Failing For Success, Or Failing To Succeed?-Weekend #Wordpour
During the course of the week, I make it a point to pop into the Clubhouse app for business purposes. There are a few select rooms where I learn a lot and, in return, give my own thoughts and advice to others. There are other rooms for networking, and for discussing creative content ideas. Some rooms celebrate small business victories and give encouragement to each other.
Thursday morning was a little different. One room discussed how failure can benefit your business. We tossed around ideas. We discussed whether we should even refer to things as failures. But we made each other think more than anything.
I'm still thinking on this.
We all have failures in our personal and professional lives. The question becomes, "how do we recover from it?" And is it possible that failing is what makes us become successful in our businesses in the end?
How many times have you seen an ad or an email with someone bragging about their success? You know the one I'm talking about. They talk about driving their Lamborghini and owning their multi-million dollar mansions. They tell you they did it all in months for pennies on the dollar, and you can too if you pay $97 for their e-book. What's your first thought? If you're like me, you try to stop your gag reflex long enough to hit delete. You may or may not believe they actually have that sort of success. You don't believe you, too, can catapult to the stars of success with their program. And even if you could, do you feel compelled to buy from someone that always seems to win with their Midas touch? If you're like me, you secretly are hoping they fall on their face and get brought back down to earth. Not because we're mean. We can't relate to someone who is always winning.
Now imagine this same person with the same successes, but it didn't come overnight. They invested everything they had in a business they thought was a sure thing. They had a little success at first, started to show off, and BOOM! They partnered with the wrong person. They overspent. They didn't research the demand for their product or services. Regardless of the reason, they failed. They lost their house and finances. They may have had to resort to living in their car and taking odd jobs to rebuild. But that's exactly what they did...they rebuilt. They worked hard, changed their attitude, got a feel for what people wanted and needed, and rose to success. They were an underdog. A phoenix rising from the ashes. You relate to that story. You connect. You cheer and support them.
You buy from them.
This is an extreme example, but it highlights how your failure can actually lead to your success. And it isn't because consumers love an underdog story (even though they do). The part of the story that you need to look at is the part where the business owner LEARNED FROM THE FAILURE. Because THAT is where you can succeed. The success comes from discovering where you went wrong, and what you did to fix it. The success comes when you pick yourself up, admit you didn't know what you were doing, and keep going forward. You pivot. You go back to the drawing board. You try it again. You put your pride on the shelf, roll up your sleeves, and go back to work.
While copywriting and content creation aren't new to me, business ownership is. Over the past 6 months, I've blown it a bunch of times. I've had to swallow my pride and admit I didn't know how to use social media correctly. Hell, I had to admit I couldn't use Word to it's fullest. Yes, you read that right. A freelance copywriter who couldn't use Word and didn't know how best to post on social media. I knew I could write. I knew I could sell. I didn't know how to do the rest. I didn't even KNOW what I didn't know. The learning curve has been steep, but the desire to succeed has been stronger. I've surrounded myself with some great supporters, teachers, and mentors. I am happy to report I am no longer incompetent with technology nor social media.
I could have quit, sucked up my losses, and gone back to the status quo. But that, my friends, is FAILURE TO SUCCEED. When you botch things up, you can either let it teach you and fuel you to improve, or you can be a victim and gain nothing. You need to approach it from the standpoint of being a baby. Babies fall down...a lot. Sometimes when they fall they get hurt. But they don't stop trying to walk. They get back up, figure out what they did wrong, and keep trying. They get more confident, they learn and get stronger. And after enough trial and error, they don't just walk...they run.
It's the same with business, any business, even with copywriting.
Especially with copywriting.
You learn what works for you. You learn through trial and error. But you don't learn unless you keep trying and building off of your mistakes. As I sip this glass of wine, I can't help but think how many years it took the winery to get the vineyards right. To grow the right amount of fruit. To figure out how long to age it in the oak barrels. How many mistakes did they make before they created something so phenomenal?
How many mistakes will you and I have to make before we create something phenomenal? It could be one mistake. It could be a thousand mistakes. It doesn't matter so long as you keep going. Because to be honest, we could be only one mistake from phenomenal success at any given moment. And that success is worth every step of failure as you climb up to get it.
So if you happen to find yourself face down in the professional dirt, you need to ask yourself this question. Are you failing to succeed, or succeeding because of your failure?
The answer lies in how many times you're willing to get back up and dust yourself off.
Here's to your success!
Sheral~Owner/founder C3 Specialties