Someone once told me that in the first 5 years of a company’s existence, 90% of them will fail. In my experience and research, I would whole-heartedly agree with that statistic. However, placed in the context of most people who would like to start their own business, many will just shake their heads and say, “Whoa, 90%? Not for me” and then move on.

Personally, I experienced no less than 20 - 25 different failures before I had one very successful launch of a company. Twenty-Five failures? Yikes! Realize that most businesses that I started did not put me in a financial bind. The reason being is that I didn’t put much money or effort into them. Those business ventures may have been researched and perhaps launched, but I stopped them as I realized they didn’t hold much promise. EACH and every failure that I encountered helped me learn from that experience. At the time of failure, each experience may have been humiliating or embarrassing, but just going through the experience helped me realize what NOT to do the next time.

I think that is why many people don’t start their own businesses, fear of failure. You’ve got a comfy and cozy job right now, making a nice income, 2 cars in the garage, and a mortgage and bills that can be taken care of. You watch a TV show or know a friend of a friend who is a very successful person and say that they were lucky or they’re a doctor or engineer or whatever excuse it is and that is why they’re rich.

I’m not going to tell you there is some super-secret method for avoiding failure. They is no way to avoid it. But your experiences will help you learn and know what to look out for in the future. I love learning and you should too, but each failure I’ve had (and will have in the future), are opportunities to capture an advantage you didn’t have before.

Would you rather be the person who starts business who is scared of failing, is too cautious and wants to avoid risk at all costs? Or would you rather be somebody who has failed and succeeded and understands what the risks are and learns from each one? If you haven’t failed yet and you’re an entrepreneur - you will.

Personally, I have a friend who sold his company a number of years ago for millions of dollars. He was the toast of the town and lived a life most people only dream of. I talked to him recently and his latest business was a complete flop - will he stop trying? I know him very well, no way.

Take a look a the wealthiest people in the world today, Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, Mark Cuban - all are tremendous success stories, but all have had their failures too. Want to know how take the first leap? Where are you in your failure tolerance level and go from there.

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