“Failure lessons from the close down of my first start-up.”

Hi All,

This is my first article regarding my life time experience, so thought to share my failure and what to share some important factors which are crucial for business.  I hope  many  of  you  may  connect  with  this  and  may  help  you  to  avoid  it.  You’re done.  You have put countless efforts into an idea that you believed so much. Literally almost blood, sweat, and tears were sacrificed for your vision. You had expected lots of things, excited for lots of future plans.

I started my own research firm at 18 and my research company was doing well that time. I thought that it was going to be long way, yet not so long after that, company started to become stagnant and then declined.

As I write this today, my research company has already stopped most of the operations. It stopped few days before but couple of months before I realized it was bound to happen. I couldn’t keep with the “Time” which I need to spend and  it kept accumulating day by day as well as lack of management leads to degradation. With a heavy heart and chaotic mind, I have to close it down.  I couldn’t believe this is happening within three years of time span.

But if you ask me, if I have the chance to start over, would I do it again? Yes of course. Despite of failure one positive thing is I learned important lessons which I never have acquired if I didn’t have started this startup.

Truly said “Being Flexible Is a Requirement for Success“.

Following are the important lessons which I learned:

1. Learn to Listen, Respect, Accept Challenges : First time starting my own firm, I had a very idealistic attitude. I had no experience in the research, its methodology and established business with only the belief that my partner and I would make it with exposure we had. I was wrong.
   Aside from not being able to make it with that business, I realized what the naysayers had been telling me all along. But you have to be careful here. There are naysayers who have no credibility to back up what they say and want to bring you down. But there are also ones who speak from experience and are genuinely concerned for you. You must learn to discern the right voices to listen to if you want to succeed.Taking risks is good, but make sure those risks are calculated and not reckless. We took a risk that wasn’t entirely reckless, but not all aspects of them were calculated. We were unsure of some parts of the business, and just “winged” it. Look at what happened to winging it! Know when you need to jump with both feet or just one, but also listen to the voices who tell you when to put your feet in the water. Trust me, you never know when you will value their input..Always respect the work you get weather it is for less value for money or wouldn’t benefit to you but it will surely beneficial for your company and its port folio. “Big dreams have small beginning”. Make sure you accept the hardest and challenging work which no one in your competition’s can accept. Explore all the opportunities to make your company vision stronger.“You can do anything if you have enthusiasm”. – Henry Ford
2. Your Failure do not defines your personality : I would feel guilty whenever people would praise me about how “successful”.  I was at such a young age but that wasn’t true. For a while I thought that I was the failure. My insecurities started haunting me again and my browser history was filled with questions on what to do. I never thought this would take a toll on my self -esteem, even when I knew I had to get back up. On the outside I looked normal. Going to college, work, and social settings looking like nothing had happened. But inside I was a wreck and didn’t want to admit it.
   That was when I discovered that successful people failed more often than they succeeded.
   Even the ones with smaller businesses had their fair share of failures before finding an idea that worked for them. But their failures never got to their heart. They weren’t the failures. The business failed, not them. So they tried again until they got it right. Maybe this business didn’t work out for me, but that doesn’t mean I’ll never be successful. The sooner you believe your failures don’t define you or your personality, the more the weight will be lifted off your shoulders. People fail every single day. The difference between the ones who succeed and those who don’t is persistence and the drive to continue even after failing. It’s much better to try an fail than never having to start and learn nothing.
   “A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new” – Albert Einstein                                                                                                                                          
3. Entrepreneurship requires the capacity to require quickly from difficulties :You cannot ever be successful if you haven’t developed resilience. Whether you like it or not, something will turn out wrong in your business. Maybe sometimes not to the point that it needs to be shut down, but something that could make your decisions critical to your organization goals. You could give yourself time to grieve, but it shouldn’t stop there. Life goes on. And you need to get back on your feet if you still want to make a difference. The biggest companies that are successful right now all experienced a massive amount of failure. But they never stopped trying. Because with every failure comes a lesson. Anyone with common sense would learn from that failure, and start again with more knowledge on what to do and what not to do. Instead of grieving for a much longer period. It might be hard at first, but if you call yourself an entrepreneur, quitting is not an option. We fail, we learn, then get back up .
   “Success is not final, failure is not fatal : It’s the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill 

4. Inject your personality into your passion : When you’re passionate about your work, it seems like you can work day and night without ever feeling tired. Of course, it’s advisable to make time for proper rest. I’ve found that, the more I enjoy work, the more I look after myself to reduce the risks of becoming ill. Injecting your personality into your work makes everything easier. It’s very draining pretending to be someone you’re not. If you’re already pursuing your passion, add a splash of your personality to reduce the chance of burn out. 
   Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm”. – Abraham Lincoln

Thanks !

Hope you had a great time reading this.

Enjoy reading 🙂

Stay tuned on Knowledge-Junction, will come up with more such articles. Feel free to contact me in case of any comment / issue / feedback !.