37- PR and Marketing Laws – No.2: Failure

Have you noticed this word being used more and more by senior executives and business coaches? I’ve had fun doing what I so often urge you to do: Google searches. When I searched “business failures”, I got more than 20 million hits, and these titles were at the top of the list: - Celebrating failure in business – École des entrepreneurs - How failure can make you a better entrepreneur (BDC) - The business failure that’s good for you – Réseau Mentorat - Three ways you can succeed by failing – Les Affaires As you might expect, this last article caught my eye. Are there methods for failing well? I’ll admit that failure’s not one of my favourite words. Like many entrepreneurs, I have my own collection of rejected service proposals and lost clients. I try to avoid the verb “fail” as much as possible. However, I’m aware that trying new things often means failing. Those who manage to learn from these failures often succeed better. Failure is an immutable law of PR and marketing, and I think it’s best to face it. The article mentions three steps that actor Will Smith says we can take to fail well: Fail early Fail often Fail forward Fail early It’s better to experience failure sooner rather than later. If you fall fast, you’ll probably avoid major financial losses, not to mention the prolonged, intense stress that can impact your health and your loved ones. Fail often Quite a tip, isn’t it? We often think failure is the end of everything. You write your first blog post, publish it, and no one reads it... is that a failure? Many would say yes. My podcast producer told me that most of his clients weren’t releasing more than 10 podcasts. That’s probably because they only go by the number of listeners, and don’t realize that it’s with the 30th, or even 40th, episode that their audience will grow, and, most importantly, that word of mouth will work its magic. There’s no guarantee of success when you give a presentation or submit a bid. We’ve suffered hundreds of small setbacks, and we’ve built our resilience and success on them. Of course, my partner and I are unsettled when clients leave us, but we know our perseverance will win us new contracts in the months that follow. Failure in business is essential. Fail forward This means keep moving forward despite the setbacks, rather than turning around, slowing down, or stopping. Successful, innovative entrepreneurs are determined and dedicated to achieving their goal, despite any failures that may arise. Think about the smartphones we’re all using today. How many failures do you think it took to reach this technological wonder? Speaking for myself, failure still hits me just as hard, but I’ve learned not to carry the feeling around for weeks like I used to do 20 years ago, when I founded my agency. I take the time to let the feeling in. It’s not a pleasant one, but I know it’s fleeting – and it won't kill me. Knowing this, I can move forward again. So, I’ll leave you with a few quotes. Failure is a broad subject and talking about it is good for us. I think I could even make a podcast about it! “When we fail, it's the perception of failure – not the failure itself – that makes us suffer.” -  Fred Bastien, organizer of FailCamp “If you’ve never failed (in business), it’s probably because you're living too comfortably – you’re not taking enough risks.” - Alexandre Taillefer, serial entrepreneur We’re here to answer your questions if you want to find out more about the powerful tools that PR and social media can be. Free consultation Subscribe to our lists: www.natapr.com.