Entrepreneurs Learn From Their Mistakes
Entrepreneurs have a different mindset compared to us, regular individuals. What we call failure, they call lessons. Once they set their mind into a task, they proceed one small step at a time. They really desire what they want to do; do it and pause to see if it works. If it doesn’t work, they go try it another way. What we call a failed undertaking is a valuable learning experience for them. They know what doesn’t work and this set back determines what they will do next. We can learn from entrepreneurs – to develop the same mindset that prods them to “Act, Learn and Repeat”. This is the essence of the article by Paul Brown at Forbes.com.
It is not that they never had things gone wrong. They have. And they have indeed lost money when things did not turn out as planned. Yet, they almost never refer to these things as failures.
It isn’t a matter of semantics. It goes to how they think—a thought process you may want to follow.
A quick look at the people who have become successful entrepreneurs shows the path they took is as unique as they are. But—and it a HUGE but—while their behavior is idiosyncratic, the thinking these successful people followed is not.
If you study serial entrepreneurs you’ll see they all follow the same approach in building their organizations.
1. They REALLY want to do what they set out to do. If you don’t have desire, you won’t give anything your best efforts.
2. They first take a small step toward their goal. Starting anything new is risky. You don’t want to move too far too fast.
3. After taking that small step, they stop to see what they have learned. Maybe they learn their initial goal is still a good one. Maybe the market is telling them they need to go in another direction.
4. Based on what they have learned, they then take another small step and go through the cycle once again.
In other words the formula for success (if there is one) is: Act. Learn. Repeat.
And at some point in the endless iteration of the cycle, they may come to the conclusion that the path they are on isn’t working and isn’t likely to anytime soon.
You and I see that as a failure. They don’t. They see that has valuable learning. They have learned what doesn’t work. That will allow them to take smarter steps toward whatever they do next.
So, the answer to the question: “Do entrepreneurs learn from their failures” is yes…even though they don’t think of these things as failures. …
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