Back in May our theme for the month was The F Word: Failure. In our community forums we explored the topic of The Perfect Fail-- essentially the idea that you can do everything *right* and still come out with a bummer result. Maker Lynn Quire got vulnerable and shared the time that she new she literally had to close up shop. I think we all can relate to a lot of the things in this, especially making hard decisions despite what people will think.
One of the hardest things about running your own business is having to deal with failure. It’s isolating and extremely discouraging-- which can create a downward spiral if we’re not careful.
We talk about the three ways I think makers and other creative businesses typically fail-- with two of them stinging the most and one of them that most makers deal with pretty well. Once we know what kind of failure we are experiencing, we can better make a plan to move on (I’m not saying it will be easy, but I’m saying we can!).
We don't know what we don't know and oftentimes in business we can beat ourselves up for mistakes. We can fail to see each mistake as an opportunity to expand our knowledge base. But if we build into our business the expectation that mistakes happen because we are ALWAYS learning, then it's less of a huge mental setback when they happen.
That's why I love today's post from #ahasmember D'Shawn of of Southern Elegance. Her mistake not only taught her a valuable lesson, it opened her up to new avenues and opportunities!
