Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.-Winston Churchill
The worst thing to ever happen to any business or your professional career is failing and not knowing or refusing to learn from it and moving on. The inability to recognize when the current strategy or career isn’t on the path to success can cost you more than you can raise.
Fail fast means to recognise when an idea, a business or career is not working and to quickly make the decision to change the situation whilst you still have time and resources to make that change.
No business is too big not to fail
Every business has the opportunity to fail, the secret is to find ways to not let it fail, fast or slow. But when it does fail, it’s up to you to learn from your mistakes and move on to something new, this time with a greater chance to succeed because you know what does not work.
Failure does not mean you should give up!
Great entrepreneurs of our time tried lots of ideas that didn’t work before they got to the ones that we all know about. The important point is that they never gave up on their dream to create a successful business, but they gave up on ideas that were not working and moved on what know of today. Most entrepreneurs are very passionate about their initial ideas, but to be able to dispassionately move on from a failed idea that you may have been really enthused by takes great courage.
Failure is just a setback!
Failure is hard to admit especially when there is a lot at stake. Some entrepreneurs even find it difficult to pick themselves up after serious setbacks and start again. Business failure could be regarded as an important component of both personal and business growth because so many lessons are learnt in the process. Nobody plans to fail but when you see it happening, either make the change to turn things around if you can or move on, keep the dream alive and try something else.
Failure is a learning process!
Failure and mistakes are part of the learning process in creating something innovative hence failing fast, learning and succeeding faster means to get back up again when you fall, this time better prepared. The more comfortable you area at stumbling and making mistakes and bouncing back from them, the more you learn.
The best way to learn fast is to implement faster.
If you believe so much in your idea, put it out there, measure what works and what is not working, make the necessary changes and release again. Always remember to record the findings from your first launch and if your metrics are met, expand quickly to repeat the launch to a wider audience who can give you feedback. Every step brings you closer to your goal.
To increase your chances of success
– Identify a market problem you believe you can solve
– Do you research about the market existing products, the competition, industry and market size
-Validate your idea by talking to real customers-you need to find out if potential customers really need your solution
– Build a prototype if there a market for your solution
-Release fast for feedback, iterate and repeat.
– If every thing is working as planned, go all out for it, otherwise fail fast, learn and succeed faster in your next attempt.
