What is failure? Apart from a word none of us like hearing or thinking about!

Failure: The condition or fact of not achieving the desired end or ends!

Well okay, that doesn’t sound so bad. But it’s how we feel about it that can create havoc with our lives. Not the act of failing in and of itself.

I failed in my first business (financially a huge mess). When I mentioned this to another entrepreneur, at the time, he said to me, “you didn’t fail“!

And I said, “Well if you don’t count closing your business doors, owing a ton of money to a lot of people a failure … what do you call it?”

And he said, “Taking risks while you learn how to do something the right way.” Just so you know, at the time I strongly disagreed with him. I was the one that had to figure out what to do next. I was a single parent with no income, ruined credit and lots of bills to pay.

But guess what? he was right. When I creatively (and hurriedly) came up with a short term financial solution (got a job), spoke with each of the creditors and made the best arrangements I could at the time (and asked for short term help from my family – that was the hardest thing of all!) I got by.

Within a year. I had put together another proposal, went after more financing and was in business again.

So I advise you to look carefully at the actual meaning of the word failure. Because it isn’t the end of everything. That only happens when you give up. As long as you keep trying, you haven’t failed at all, you’re still in your learning curve!