How to face failure?
Did you know Steve Jobs, the patron saint of hopeless causes that succeed, was once fired from Apple?
Wald Disney founded one of the most imaginative and creative empires of all time; yet he was fired by a newspaper because he “lacked imagination and had no good ideas.”
Michael Jordan, on the other hand, often lauded as the best basketball player of all time, was actually dropped from his high school basketball team. He didn’t let this set him back from pursuing the sport, however. Jordan famously said “I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the winning shot, and I missed. I have failed over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
In short, it’s likely that you will fail at some point in your entrepreneurial endeavor. But that’s ok. In fact, it’s probably better if you fail at the first, second or third time of trying. It gives you chance to learn, refine and adapt. The majority of successful entrepreneurs, athletes, writers and inventors experienced at least one major setback in their careers.
What separates the winners from the losers however, is their mindset. Maintaining a positive mental outlook and having an insatiable desire to make your service or product the best it can possibly be is key if you are to succeed.
Baidu’s CEO Li Hongyan said that Internet entrepreneurs must be ready for failure, be brave enough to innovate and concentrate on one thing.
A string of rags-to-riches success stories in China have encouraged flocks of would-be-entrepreneurs to start ventures and the government to introduce preferential policies for them. However, only a few of them succeed. The success rate (receiving seed funding and returning profits) among entrepreneurs in the country is estimated to be around five to 10 percent. How to face failure is an important question that every entrepreneur should consider.
An immature attitude, a lack of managerial and financial experience, and lack of social resources are some of the things holding people back. The development of the Internet has brought both opportunities and challenges. Some startups, although being successful at the initial stage, may get into trouble while developing due to insufficient number of customers, improper use of capital and unequal profit distribution. Entrepreneurs have to solve problems with products, management and cash flow to fight their way to success.
Unsuccessfulness does not mean definite failure. Some entrepreneurs achieve success by shifting to a new project after failure. For entrepreneurs, the failure at the initial entrepreneurial stage is not terrible.
Xu Xiaoping, founder of ZhenFund, said that serial entrepreneurs attract the most investment. Opportunities will never be lost if people start new businesses. MomentCam, a kind of mobile Internet product launched in 2013, is one of the successful examples. In the case of underwhelming user feedback at the beginning, the founder Ren Xiaoqian changed her offering to better fit the user demand. Now the app has been downloaded more than 200 million times globally.
Nevertheless, failure is not a blind valley since not all the people are suitable for entrepreneurship. Those having experienced failure may become excellent employees. According to Wang Xinwen, founder of one of Tencent’s phone games, entrepreneurs shall be calm to face failure and they can learn from every failed entrepreneurial project.
Due to the risk of entrepreneurship, it is important to reduce such risk by making policies. In recent years, China has ramped up efforts to provide entrepreneurship risk compensation. Many cities have set risk compensation funds for entrepreneurial loans and investments, as well as entrepreneurial insurance to offer entrepreneurs basic guarantees. The government authorities will further optimize the entrepreneurship system to encourage more entrepreneurs and public innovation.
Wald Disney founded one of the most imaginative and creative empires of all time; yet he was fired by a newspaper because he “lacked imagination and had no good ideas.”
Michael Jordan, on the other hand, often lauded as the best basketball player of all time, was actually dropped from his high school basketball team. He didn’t let this set him back from pursuing the sport, however. Jordan famously said “I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the winning shot, and I missed. I have failed over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
In short, it’s likely that you will fail at some point in your entrepreneurial endeavor. But that’s ok. In fact, it’s probably better if you fail at the first, second or third time of trying. It gives you chance to learn, refine and adapt. The majority of successful entrepreneurs, athletes, writers and inventors experienced at least one major setback in their careers.
What separates the winners from the losers however, is their mindset. Maintaining a positive mental outlook and having an insatiable desire to make your service or product the best it can possibly be is key if you are to succeed.
Baidu’s CEO Li Hongyan said that Internet entrepreneurs must be ready for failure, be brave enough to innovate and concentrate on one thing.
A string of rags-to-riches success stories in China have encouraged flocks of would-be-entrepreneurs to start ventures and the government to introduce preferential policies for them. However, only a few of them succeed. The success rate (receiving seed funding and returning profits) among entrepreneurs in the country is estimated to be around five to 10 percent. How to face failure is an important question that every entrepreneur should consider.
An immature attitude, a lack of managerial and financial experience, and lack of social resources are some of the things holding people back. The development of the Internet has brought both opportunities and challenges. Some startups, although being successful at the initial stage, may get into trouble while developing due to insufficient number of customers, improper use of capital and unequal profit distribution. Entrepreneurs have to solve problems with products, management and cash flow to fight their way to success.
Unsuccessfulness does not mean definite failure. Some entrepreneurs achieve success by shifting to a new project after failure. For entrepreneurs, the failure at the initial entrepreneurial stage is not terrible.
Xu Xiaoping, founder of ZhenFund, said that serial entrepreneurs attract the most investment. Opportunities will never be lost if people start new businesses. MomentCam, a kind of mobile Internet product launched in 2013, is one of the successful examples. In the case of underwhelming user feedback at the beginning, the founder Ren Xiaoqian changed her offering to better fit the user demand. Now the app has been downloaded more than 200 million times globally.
Nevertheless, failure is not a blind valley since not all the people are suitable for entrepreneurship. Those having experienced failure may become excellent employees. According to Wang Xinwen, founder of one of Tencent’s phone games, entrepreneurs shall be calm to face failure and they can learn from every failed entrepreneurial project.
Due to the risk of entrepreneurship, it is important to reduce such risk by making policies. In recent years, China has ramped up efforts to provide entrepreneurship risk compensation. Many cities have set risk compensation funds for entrepreneurial loans and investments, as well as entrepreneurial insurance to offer entrepreneurs basic guarantees. The government authorities will further optimize the entrepreneurship system to encourage more entrepreneurs and public innovation.