Fail Forward

I consider myself to be a student of history. I have an AA in History, my maternal grandfather was a university history professor, and I live on a diet of historical documentaries.

The History Channel’s “The Men Who Built …”, and its offshoots, provide eye opening examples of men and women who have failed at so many things yet ultimately became highly successful. Persistence. I’m sure that Elon Musk failed at multiple ventures before he became a multi-billionaire.

I’m a lot like Elon, just without the billions. For that matter, without the millions. Over the past 15 years I have had significantly more failures than I have had successes. Yet, I am not discouraged. I learn from each misstep. I have learned to fail forward.

Failure is an integral part of every learning experience. Once we accept that, we are free to move forward. In some cases, we may make a pact with ourselves to never again repeat that misstep. The alternative may be that age-old definition of insanity …

Doing the same (wrong) thing over and over again and expecting different results!

The examples that I have seen on the History Channel all share a common theme. A man or a woman will have this great idea and, try as they might, success continues to evade them. What separates them from the also rans is that they … will … never … give … up. Fail, adjust, attack. Over and over and over again.

While there are obvious mistakes which should solicit the “Well, I won’t be doing that again!” response, others might be more nuanced. As an example …

I’ve spent my entire life in sales. I love to win. I probably hate losing even more. That being said, I was always guilty of two things …

Only doing the minimum needed to earn the sale.
Giving up too easily and writing a sale off as being a bad fit.

This required some major adjustments to my selling style. For one thing, I was chasing any sale with little regard as to whether or not it was my kind of project, the kind of project that I had a high likelihood of securing. Think Ideal Client Profile and Target Buyer Persona. Up until this point, I had never defined either.

Now then, once I had determined that I wanted this sale and I should be able to get it, I made a deal with myself that the only way that I could allow a loss was if I had done literally everything and anything in my power to secure that sale.

No cutting corners. No giving up. What a difference both made and neither would have been possible without the lessons learned via failures. How about you? What have your failures in life taught you?

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Craig M. Jamieson

Managing Member at Adaptive Business Services

Craig M. Jamieson is a lifelong B2B salesperson, manager, owner, and a networking enthusiast. Adaptive Business Services provides solutions related to the sales professional. We are a Nimble CRM Solution Partner. Craig also conducts training and workshops primarily in social selling and communication skills. Craig is also the author of "The Small Business' Guide to Social CRM", now available on Amazon!