Posted by Raphael on Aug 30, 2012 in Inspiration, My Business Adventures, Personal | 0 comments

Here’s another tip I would give my own child much less any of the young business people out there. It may seem obvious, but it’s hard to keep this in mind when you’re hip deep in it. I’ve learned the tough way that in order to be successful in whatever I did, I had to fail a bunch of times to get there.

It really IS true.

My first attempt at a freelance business was fresh out of college. I knew I had some skills that I could market…I somehow taught myself HTML during the early 2400 baud modem days. But I knew next to nothing about how to get started, how to market, how to price my services etc. I created a website and business cards, and I think I made a flier. I told everyone I could at the time…although I was probably quite shy at first, so “everyone” might have just been my immediate circle of friends and family and that’s about it. I think I did manage to figure out how to get a legitimate business license. I eagerly snatched up books to keep track of records just as I was taught in my business classes.

I don’t remember much business coming out of that experience. I only recall the disappointment I had at the time wondering why I couldn’t pick up any clients. Had I given up…that would have been the end of it.

I didn’t kill that business. I let it sit for a few years while I worked full time at an ISP startup. I used my years at that business observing people who were brilliant at what they did. THAT’s ultimately where I learned the ropes in terms of what it took to run a business in real life practice.

That wasn’t it. Flash forward I quit that job after a bunch of years and tried my business again. A little better this time around getting the momentum going. But I still had to do a lot of trial and error in terms of networking, advertising, and just learning how to read client reactions. Failures forced me to modify and improve my skillset. Not only that, but I found out that it actually makes it somewhat easier to gain the trust of my clients when they understand I had failed before but learned how to get passed that challenge. My failures became my assets.

Once you learn that failure is part of your education, you’ll feel like you’re always moving forward.