Why is Business Failure so Hard?

The Day I Closed My First Business

Due to the reasons I shared in the last lesson…

...lack of experience and knowledge made me neglect some key areas of business..

...for that reason, my first business failed.

For many people, this is the worst nightmare.

Failing publicly, in front of others, in full view of the people who said congratulations when you were starting out...

Why is failure so hard?

It is hard to the extent, and depending on your own interpretation of it.

I have closed a business more than once. The first time it was devastating. The second time, it was normal. In fact, it was a relief…

So with my first experience, I just sat there after closing my boutique, my first business, thinking about how much time, effort and money I had put in...and failed.

It was an emotional moment.

All that was left was to calculate the value of the inventory at hand and figure out how I could recoup a little bit of it.

Failure...

Brian Tracy says the number one cause of business failure is fear of failure.

It's not failure itself but the fear of it...

What makes failure so hard?

It all comes down to perception. Its important to ask yourself:

How do I view failure?

How do I handle criticism?

How do I react when a venture fails?

What happens when my plans don't work out?

These are points for retrospection and introspection.

This is when I started to realise the importance of knowledge…

Not just knowledge about business but the inner game, self awareness and generally the need to educate yourself.

One advantage of experience is that you start changing how you view things.

My first business failure was emotionally devastating but if I closed a business today, I would simply move on to the next thing.

I have come to realise that sometimes even with business knowledge and experience, a business can fail.

Even products do fail.

Examples:

Edgars (someone bought part of it but that’s a different story)

Jets

Kwese

J.C Penney

Etc…

All these are business ventures that failed after some time…

I am giving such examples to show you that it happens.

It can happen even to the best among us.

Sometimes it's a miscalculation in market conditions

...sometimes, something affects your stakeholders and you are also affected

... sometimes it's the economy etc…

Right now we are still in a tough period and many businesses that depend on people traveling a lot have closed.

On the other hand, many others are booming, e.g e-commerce like Amazon have grown during this time, SAAS companies like Zoom, internet service providers etc…

..due to higher demand.

The best is to simply dust yourself up, learn the lesson and move on.

So there I was….

What was I going to do next?

Start over? But I had no capital.

Try to find a job? Jobs were so hard to find.

Tomorrow, I will share 11 ways I have managed to make money online using just a laptop and internet access.. (DISCLAIMER: There is no get rich quick skim here...just good old fashioned Hustle taken online)

Plus...a lesson I learned from a job interview that made me end my job search.

END.

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However, if you know you could do better...join my club.

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