Entrepreneurship is a Process of Learning from Failing

One of the first things we are taught in our life is the ability to stand up after falling down. Most people don’t remember the first time they had fallen in their life; however, we all did and we got up and we continued growing. While this process of falling, learning and growing becomes a part of our lives, it is perhaps professionally not felt more keenly than by entrepreneurs.?

For most entrepreneurs, their business journey has hit rough patches that sometimes seem insurmountable, for some the journey they had undertaken have even come to sudden screeching halts. This non glamorous and not frequently spoken about part of running a business is where many business greats have found their biggest learnings from. Infosys’ N.R. Narayana Murthy, Tesla’s Elon Musk, Biocon’s Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Sony’s Akio Morita, HuffPost’s Arianna Huffington and Disney’s Walt Disney all have something in common, something they share with myriad of entrepreneurs and that is: failure, learning from failure, applying the learnings, succeeding and the process repeating over and over again.?

Failure is a word that has many negative connotations and in our society it is something to be feared. Yet in business it is something that is always close by, something you cannot avoid, yet if you choose to accept the wisdom it has to offer, you will find a lot more success in life. That does not mean you go looking for failure or make it a hobby in the hopes of finding success. With proper knowledge, training, wisdom and due diligence, you will reduce a lot of unnecessary burden that failure brings with it but when you do fail, you will also be able to learn a lot from it and if you apply those learning wisely, you will find success. Let us look at a few such success stories that would not have been possible without failure.

Elon Musk, currently the world’s richest person, is known for being the founder of brands such as Tesla and SpaceX; however, his journey to success was a long and tumultuous one. Rejected job applications, failed business, ousting as CEO of his own company, Elon Musk has seen it all. Throughout his journey though, he took whatever came his way, learnt from it and reached where he is today.

N.R. Narayana Murthy, the founder of Infosys, left his job to start his company against the wishes of his father-in-law, the company named Softronics tanked and Mr. Murthy had to close the company after a year and a half of operations. He returned to a job but later went on to find the IT behemoth, Infosys.

Akio Morito, one of the co-founders of the global giant, Sony, faced failure in the early days of the company. The company’s starting product included a rice cooker that would overcook or undercook the rice, rarely producing delicious rice. While most would struggle to survive such a setback so early in the business, Sony continued undeterred and reached where it is today.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, in a chapter on her, in the book, Why I failed: lessons from leaders, states ‘There are many examples of failure. I had a huge credibility hurdle to overcome. I failed to get financial support. I failed to recruit people I wanted to’, despite this she continued and today is one of India’s richest self made entrepreneurs with a net worth of more than INR 25,000 crores.?

Walt Disney, was fired from his job because his boss felt “he lacked imagination and had no original ideas”, he started his first animation company which went bankrupt and he was turned down financing hundreds of times for Disney World. Today, Disney is one of the most beloved companies in the world and Walt Disney’s name has been immortalised in the pages of history.?

If there is something for all of us to learn through these glimpses of triumph post failure, it is that entrepreneurship is a process of learning from failing, as Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw says, failure is a temporary phase, giving-up is permanent. Have a positive outlook, and the spirit to succeed.?

Learn from the experts at SPJIMR, whether it is the Post-Graduate Programme in Family Managed Business or Start Your Business programme or the Summer Bootcamp for Young Entrepreneurs, to arm yourself with the right knowledge and you’ll avoid unnecessary failure but will be ready to learn from the setbacks that you face.?

Sources: Forbes, American Express, Sony, Inc42, Economic Times, Why I failed: lessons from leaders by Shweta Punj (Random House India), RS Components, Business Today, Business Insider???