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If At First You Don't Succeed In Entrepreneurship, Try These 7 Things

This article is more than 7 years old.

If you’re a successful entrepreneur, chances are, this isn’t your first rodeo.

Most successful entrepreneurs whom I know are people who have tried, failed, tried, failed, and tried again — often many tries later — and eventually succeeded.

An entrepreneur who succeeds at his or her first venture is like getting a hole-in-one. Everyone wants a hole-in-one. Everyone tries to get a hole-in-one. But very few people actually do.

I wrote this article for those entrepreneurs who are on their first, second, or third attempt. You may have a string of failures behind you. But you’re still determined to succeed. What do you do?

1. Simply get up, and do it again.

This is my best advice:  Just get up and do it again.

If that sounds harsh or impossible, then maybe you're not cut out for entrepreneurship.

You won’t magically rise to success after a failure. You have to fight back. You have to get up. You have to hurl yourself back into the battle with all the ferocious energy that you can muster.

Those who rise first will succeed the fastest.

2. Write down the reasons why your last business failed.

Don’t waste your failure. Learn from it.

One of the first things you can do after watching your business go down in flames is to ask the question why?

Call it a post-mortem. Call it an autopsy. But whatever you do, don’t call it the end. Your failure is a lesson. Take heed, and take notes.

3. Get a mentor now!

What was missing from your last startup?

Money? Talent? Speed? Market readiness?

If you didn’t have a mentor, then it’s no wonder you didn’t succeed. To shortcut your path to success, find yourself a mentor.

You can find mentorship in paid mastermind groups, online coaching sessions, or through traditional networking. Don't look for a perfect mentor. Instead, look for a variety of mentors, each of whom will have perspective and experience that can guide you in your business.

4. Watch your emotions.

Emotions are one of an entrepreneur's most powerful personal assets. Why? Because emotions can keep you high when everything seems to come crashing down. If you’re emotionally calm when business is stormy, then your emotions will keep you at an even keel. You can make wise and rational decisions.

Protecting your emotions doesn’t mean being weak. Protecting your emotions means staying intentionally positive, surrounding yourself with upward influences, and making sure that you’re receiving the right dose of encouragement to balance out the negativity.

Here are a few things you may wish to try:

  • Get connected to a loyal group of supporters. Family, friends, and mentors are all great sources of support. Be open about the kind of emotional vibe you value when you’re around them.
  • Tell your mentor about your desire for emotional strength. He or she may have some wise words to help you.
  • Take breaks. Recharging — away from work — is a great method for maintaining emotional resilience

Getting discouraged, losing your momentum, and giving up — these are the hallmarks of an entrepreneur in a nosedive. By maintaining a strong grip on your emotional power, you will be able to build an enduring business.

5. Realize that wasn’t a “failure.” It was a lesson in being awesome.

It’s time to reimagine failure.

All too often, we think of failure as something really bad.

But failure isn’t all bad. Sure, it hurts. Yes, it can be discouraging. Obviously, we don’t cherish the experience.

But here’s the thing you need to keep in mind:  To fail is to move closer to success.

Success is going to happen. It’s inevitable. You just don’t know how many failures you’ll have to pull through before success happens. But as long as you keep moving on, you’ll succeed.

Your failure was actually a lesson in being awesome.

6. Try something you actually enjoy.

How did you feel about your last business — the one that didn’t work?

Did you love what you were doing? Of course you probably didn’t love every minute, every task, or every responsibility. But in general, did you enjoy it?

Doing what you love is often the missing ingredient to success. It’s hard to be successful doing stuff you hate.

Don’t force yourself to embrace a business that you’re miserable in. Pick up, move on, and give yourself the gift of a business you love.

7. Outsource more than you did before.

A common reason for failure is overwork.

Smart and successful entrepreneurs realize quickly that they can’t do it all. They don’t even try. They function as the business’s leader, thinker, visionary, and director, but not its handiman.

The minute you duck away to do some code, design a graphic, or set up a Facebook page, is the minute your startup loses its leader.

Outsource as much as you can. Hopefully, you’re already outsourcing tasks like design, social media, copywriting, etc. But are you outsourcing other time-consuming tasks like operations, hiring, reporting, etc?

There are three main levels of business action: 

  1. Creative tasks such as writing, coding, and design.
  2. Management tasks such as hiring, directing a team, and checking work, and
  3. Strategy tasks such as envisioning new market opportunities, defining new initiatives, and planning new products.

Focus your efforts and energies on the third of these levels, delegate the other two, and you’ll get the greatest return on your investment of time.

Conclusion

Obviously there is no magic bullet that will guarantee your success next time. I can assure you, however, that by embracing these 7 points you will get a lot closer than you did last time.

What things will you try in your next startup to improve your odds of success?