Why do people Fail?

Time and again, in my life, I have realized that failure is a teacher, a stepping stone to success. When I started on my professional journey and was looking for my first job, I must have applied to atleast 150 plus different opportunities and I didn’t even get a single interview call. During my corporate career, many a times my ideas were rejected, projects went into RED. Team collapsed and many more things happened. However, it took me only 12 years to become the Assistant Vice President of a multi-National software company, from a technical trainer that I started as. I worked hard, learnt from my as well as others mistakes. I worked on several business concepts, failed in many, lost a lot of money. I had the desire to succeed that kept me going and pushed me to try one more time.

Every failure taught me what I shouldn’t do. I know that in the face of “Failure” it seems and feels like the world is about to end and apocalypse, is just around the corner. Failure is not the end. We all want to advance in life, in jobs, in our careers, in our businesses. However, we must realize that failure is just like a speed bump on the road. It makes you to slow down, assess the risks and then advance. .

What is life, without the little speed bumps or the pot holes on the way? Would it make life smoother and happier? I would like to differ. When the ECG shows a flat line, the person is declared dead. For me failure is a lesson, leading to success, which I needed to learn to improve myself. 

I was in corporate for more than 18 years and I have been an entrepreneur for the past 7 and half years. I would say this has been an amazing journey so far, I have tripped, fallen and failed many times and felt like quitting more times than I can count. But today when I look back, getting through those are the moments which make me feel proud and happy about my journey so far.

I believe, you are not a failure unless you Quit. Let’s all agree that the road to success is not going to be easy. As per the statistics only 5% of the people survive and only 1% sustain as entrepreneurs. 

Why do so many fail? 

It is not because you didn’t have a winning idea or an out of the box concept. It is because you didn’t decide on the destination. You looked at the path and the vehicle and decide to take it, without truly knowing what your destination was? I can give you an analogy to help you understand this better. Let’s  say you buy a Ferrari, the fastest vehicle that exists, you would agree right… However, you wanted to drive down to Ladakh. What are the chances that you would reach your destination in the faster car on this planet? Chances are you wouldn’t even get to start on the mountain roads. Do you know why? Because, given the ground clearance and the controls that car cannot take a mountain road. Leave aside reaching Ladakh. Well let’s say you don’t want to go to Ladakh but to Kutch from Mumbai, with your entire family, which is a nice 4 lane highway and all flat roads. Now is this a good vehicle to take the trip on? Well, because a Ferrari has only 2 seats, definitely it cannot accommodate your family and your luggage as there is no boot in this fantastic vehicle. The vehicle in itself is Fantastic yet proves useless as it can’t help you reach your Destination.

“So the Path & the Vehicle can only be chosen after the Destination is decided.”

 This is the biggest mistake most of the budding entrepreneurs make. They focus on their current skills and they focus on what will sell and make money, they focus on the path and the vehicle. But, they all miss out the most important step. Which is getting to know The DESTINATION. We cannot decide the path or the Vehicle without knowing the destination, can we? But then, that is how most of us operate and then fall flat on our face, most of the time it is because we never gave enough thought to the end goal or the destination. It is not the fault of the vehicle or the path, it’s just that it cannot take me to where I really want to be. 

Most of the times, personal goals and business goals are completely out of sync. We define goals in terms of turnover and sales, we never define where I want to be in the next 5 years as a person / an individual. We forget that the whole purpose of life is to live it, find peace and happiness. But we don’t define the factors what brings us true happiness. It isn’t money that brings us happiness, but what we do with that money? 

Business goals have to translate into achieving personal goals. Hence, not being able to see the big picture. Every successful person has always had a global vision. Knowing the big picture and then breaking it down to the smaller goals and milestones. 

Persistence and Perseverance: Most of the times we lose focus because we don’t see the results. Do you remember Kindergarden? How many times did you try just to get your “A” right. How many times M S Dhoni must have practiced a shot to get that perfect shot. The secret of success is self-discipline, consistent efforts, not for 2 months or 2 years, but until you get it right. No matter how long that takes.

When venturing in to realize your goals, you can only decide on the goal and plan. And don't worry if it doesn't work out the first time.

In my corporate career for 18 years, never did I ever see a plan work perfect the first time. Planning is an important aspect to identify the action needed to accomplish a goal. But the plan will change. Internal and external factors impacting the project will change. It will lead to re-planning, and we continue to go back and tweak the plan until we get the desired result. Experience makes us stronger and wiser.

But when it comes to our personal goals we are not persistent enough. A few failures, and we accept defeat.  Every successful person has faced many failure, our history is full of all such stories. The point I am trying to make here is.  Do you know what you Want? Is this really important to you? And how far can you go and how hard are you willing to try to achieve success?

Sunita Sharma

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sunita-sharma-65a7756