The second SpaceX Starship exploded spectacularly only a few minutes after launch, following in the footsteps of its predecessor.
I watched the explosion in awe as it illuminated my screen, exclaiming, “Oh shit,” in surprise.
You and I might view the explosion of a million-dollar project as a failure. But Elon and his SpaceX team view these as learning experiences.
Though things didn’t go according to plans, SpaceX can still collect valuable data from these tests and ultimately fix issues, potentially before more important launches.
This is similar to the fail-fast method.
Here, you test your theories or methods in real-world situations, essentially looking for cracks or issues. You can then solve these quickly, instead of months or years in the future, potentially saving money.
Unfortunately, this successful tactic is often overlooked due to egos or fear.
Why Are People Afraid to Fail?
- Embarrassment
- Confidence and self-esteem
- It’s negative
- They’re perfectionists
- Past experiences
Like me, you may fall into more than one of these categories.
Embarrassment
Those who are easily embarrassed tend to guffaw when I present the idea of intentionally looking for mistakes or making mistakes.
Embarrassment is a weird emotion, and people can be embarrassed about drastically different things.
For example, I like to sing, but I don’t think I sound good, so I never sing in front of others. But I’ll tell self-deprecating jokes at the drop of a hat.
On the other hand, my partner loves to sing and gets up on stage anywhere, anytime. She’s a fantastic singer, too. But she doesn’t like to be made fun of or share personal details because she fears what others will think.
So what embarrasses me doesn’t embarrass her, and vice versa.
But it’s my experience that blocking your fear of embarrassment separates successful entrepreneurs from average or failed ones.
Confidence and Self-esteem
To overcome your aversion to embarrassment, you’ll need confidence and self-esteem. The lack of these two is another reason some are afraid of failure.
The loss or gain of each of these is on a knife’s edge. One unexpected win or success can send your confidence to the moon, making you feel like you’re on top of the world.
However, a loss or failed plan can crush business owners and even severely depress those who have little self-belief in themselves.
Think of it like this: Although trying a plan and finding issues is indeed a failure, doing so early and experimenting or tinkering with your business early tend to expose minor problems that you can overcome quickly.
Failure is Negative
Is it, though?
For some reason, and in many cultures, failure is seen as a weakness. I’m sure we can discuss several cultural and historical reasons for this, but I’ll tell you one thing: People only remember your failure if you leave it there.
This phenomenon happens in sports all the time.
A player or coach will make a wrong decision that costs them a game or championship. But they’ll be the first to say they’ll take that failure as a learning experience and do the right thing the next time.
How many sports figures have made seemingly irreconcilable mistakes early in their career but are now regarded as one of the greats?
So, when failure happens, wouldn’t it be better for your career, mental health, and reputation to move on quickly and look for your next “win”?
They’re Perfectionists
I live with and love someone who is a perfectionist.
It used to cause severe arguments because I prefer to observe and adapt to things around me, and I don’t mind if things are a bit out of place at times.
However, she’s thrown for a loop when things aren’t perfect and can even shut down entirely.
Shutting down, giving up, or simply not trying are huge impediments to business owners competing for customer dollars.
Past Experiences Can Lead to a Fear of Failure
Past events influence experienced first-time business owners’ decisions equally.
It’s crucial to consider past events when planning or making decisions. However, use your past as a guideline, not a decision-making tool.
Remember, what worked once may not work again. But there’s a positive to that: what failed once may not fail again.
Recalling your experience allows you to spot problems earlier in your operations, but don’t let your past scare you into making (or not making) the best business decision.
These fears can be alleviated by understanding there’s always an alternative.
What’s the Alternative to Failure?
Obviously, success is the opposite.
However, the chances of achieving success without failure are minimal.
So, planning to fail, failing, and using those failures to improve your business, its operations, and yourself has a high success rate.
If you think of it, it’s like the scientific method. You spot a problem (make an observation), come up with an idea on how to fix the problem (form a hypothesis), put your idea into motion to see if it works to resolve the issue (text with an experiment), and then analyze the results. From there, you’ll tweak your idea or scrap it if it doesn’t work.
If you have children, you do this all the time.
You may observe that your child doesn’t eat vegetables but wants macaroni and cheese every night for dinner. So you may experiment by putting broccoli in the mac and cheese tonight and watching to see if they eat it.
If they do, you can do this more often to inject some healthy foods into their fun foods. If they don’t eat it, you’ll have to go back to the drawing board or change the vegetable the next time.
But simply capitulating and letting your kids eat only what they want could be a health risk, and most of us would want to curb that habit as early as possible.
So, in business, too, you must have the foresight, boldness, and fortitude to spot problems early and take action quickly to fix them.
Those two traits are inherent in entrepreneurs.
Incidentally, not everyone has those traits, as I once thought. Recently, I’ve met several people who would prefer the stability of working for an already successful business or corporation. I was shocked to realize that they are most adults in our workforce.
But it opened my mind to the fact that entrepreneurship is a unique trait only some have.
How To “Fail Fast”
There are numerous ways to test your business operations. However, I approach this as SMBs and entrepreneurs with small budgets would, so I lean towards inexpensive tactics.
First, take advantage of free software or app trials if you’re upgrading your tech stack. During these free trials, try to “break” the system by testing the tech on how it handles obscure situations. Also, set time aside to do this so you can make a firm decision before the end of the free trial.
In fact, why not spend time dreaming up possible business operations issues and then working backward to spot the pitfalls and risks ahead of time? You can also seek advice from mentors or other business owners who may have handled these situations before.
If you foresee that some of these issues can cost money, you can plan and set aside a budget for addressing these possible issues if and when they arise.
Remember that problems and unexpected issues will arise, and you’re constantly learning. The good thing is that you can use these lessons for the future. So again, if you can spot these problems early, your chances of success rise exponentially.
Failure isn’t a Bad Thing
In my experience, the best way to ensure success is to think outside the box and test your business and your business prowess as soon as you start your company. The lessons you learn through failure are invaluable. You learn resilience, you learn to stay calm under pressure, and you gather invaluable data about your business.
This ensures that you are capable of running a small business and eventually scaling it, its ROI, and its revenue.
Deven Bhagwandin 