successful failing

[Jon]

I have heard that every successful entrepreneur has a string of
business failures under his / her belt. I am going through my first
(and hopefully last) unsuccessful business venture, and I would love to
hear of any experiences of the process of failing then getting back on
your feet.

I and many other entrepreneurs gain hope and understanding from hearing
how others got through the tough time and jumped back on the
opportunity wagon.

- Jon

[Gordon Woolf]

Post by Jon
I and many other entrepreneurs gain hope and understanding from hearing
how others got through the tough time and jumped back on the
opportunity wagon.

I like the comments of Australian business woman Ita Buttrose -- one
of the first women to be editor of major daily newspaper, and founder
of the Australian version of Cleo magazine.

She left a major publisher to start her own women's magazine and it
failed. Her comment was that if you realize in time that you are not
going to be successful and get out meeting all your obligations and
having no unpaid debts, then you've tried and have not really failed.

It is possible to be unsuccessful and still act ethically. It is the
person who continues to trade when refusing to accept that failure
lays ahead who does not deserve the second chance.

Gordon Woolf
gcwnet.net

[Jon]

It is the person who continues to trade when refusing to accept that failure
lays ahead who does not deserve the second chance.

Does that mean "quit while you are ahead", or stick it out to pay back
the debts?

- Jon

[Gordon Woolf]

Post by Jon

It is the person who continues to trade when refusing to accept that failure
lays ahead who does not deserve the second chance.

Does that mean "quit while you are ahead", or stick it out to pay back
the debts?

No, it means get out before you reach a position where you cannot
repay all your debts. It may mean "quit while you are ahead" if you
can see that you are not going to stay ahead.

Better still, grow slowly so you don't need to have debts. Think of
all the interest you'll save, and that saving goes straight to the
bottom line.

Sadly, it now seems to be assumed that to succeed in business you have
to borrow. For many people that just means swapping a normal kind of
boss for another boss -- the bank or other financiers.

Gordon Woolf.

[Jon]

So true. I always wondered how growing too fast can be bad - but it
can be just as dangerous as not having any work at all! You have to
amass a lot of debt to support a project that is too big to handle, and
might cause the demise of a company. You might have to put all your
resources on that one customer, at the expense of all your other
customers.

Just because you see a big pot of gold in front of you does not mean
you have to pick it up.

Jon

[Michael]

Post by Jon
I have heard that every successful entrepreneur has a string of
business failures under his / her belt. I am going through my first
(and hopefully last) unsuccessful business venture, and I would love to
hear of any experiences of the process of failing then getting back on
your feet.
I and many other entrepreneurs gain hope and understanding from hearing
how others got through the tough time and jumped back on the
opportunity wagon.

Jon: You, by posting this, have added to the hope of other
entrepreneurs. I would observe that --

-- since
failure to acknowledge
failure amounts to
failure to avoid
failure, you, by facing up to possible
failing, are
failing to
fail.

Post by Jon
| :-) Thanks for your failsafe spirit.

Michael