As much as there is a lot to be learned in succeeding, failure also has a lot to teach us.
It depends on what you mean by fail!
I only help software startup founders - not all founders.
I believe that there's no excuse for these founders to fail to get a product to market, if they have the funding to do it of course. Even then, there's a lot founders can do (for free!) to maximise the chance of getting funding.
That said, I see many founders DO fail to get to market - I'm on a mission to try to prevent this!
Now if you mean fail to make a profit, that's a different story. Obviously one of the first thing's founders should do is talk to prospective customers and identify a pain/problem that they are willing to pay for. That's a start but you never really know until people actually pay (and even then can you find enough of them?) so you should get to MVP as quickly and cheaply as possible (without compromising too much on quality). I show founders how to do that.
I believe that the industry standard is 90% of startups failing within the first year of launch. However, the more founders do things properly- including, importantly, getting help - I believe this number can be reduced.
Of my 21 products, I think that about 7 were very profitable (so 33% success for me which I count as a win). And I learned TONS from my 'failures'.
It depends on what you consider failure !
Is failure when you don’t reach your sales target 3 months in a row ?
Is failure when you need to borrow a little extra money to get through a tough period ?
The answer is these are not failures and any attempt to run a business comes with failure.
I have own a few businesses over 25 years and Yes I have failed if we use the above as a definition
Instead of looking at 'failure' let's look instead to what creates a successful project.
You will find that the best creators are those who can FEEL the CERTAINTY of a successful project before they start.
They will then take the STEPS to create success.
Each step they take will be taken with as sense of CERTAINTY - and if they lose that sense of CERTAINTY at any point on the project timeline - they will pause or change direction.
A powerful creator also knows this : CERTAINTY comes from being able to CLEARLY see what they want to create.
And in business terms the #1 tool that creates a CLEAR IMAGE for everyone is the business plan.
Most people think the business plan is just about getting the details on paper. WRONG - a business plan is so that you can CLEARLY SEE in your minds eye what you are creating in ALL the DETAIL that is needed at each stage of the project.
When you can SEE something clearly you feel a sense of CERTAINTY.
This clarity is what creates confidence and keeps you focused on all the points of importance.
So if you find you are failing - congratulate yourself - it means you are out of focus in some aspect of your project. Bring yourself back into focus and try again. But next time make sure you FEEL the sense of success and make sure you can SEE it before you take action. And make sure you are focused on EVERY important step ...
Keep having fun.
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