Failure can be a difficult thing to come to terms with, especially on your road to reach success. In reality however, failure is part of the journey and an unavoidable step that skips almost no one. Some people let failure break them and they give up their hopes and dreams in exchange for perceived safety and security. As a matter of fact, most people take this route. Failure can be a hard thing to deal with psychologically. Emotions such as embarrassment, disappointment, and worthlessness can arise if you let them. Failure for the majority symbolizes and triggers a loss of hope, but for those who persist there is an endless amount of success on the other side. In order to deal with inevitable failure on our quest for success, it is necessary to reframe the way we think about failure. If we view it as all-defeating as most people do, it will no doubt cripple you. However, viewing failure from a more positive light, recovering from it, and getting back on your horse will get you to the finish line of your desired outcome. If success was easy to achieve, everyone would achieve it. Success starts and ends with a very basic principle, mindset and how we perceive our journey.
Recognizing and reframing
The best way to explain this process is by detailing an example (out of many examples) from my own life. As many of you might know, I am the owner of a brand on Amazon called GenKool. Our goal is to sell ice cube trays for whiskey and other alcohol as well as unique and innovative alcohol accessories. I launched my first product in early 2021 called “The Old Glory Edition”, and its design had an American flag imprinted on a 2″ by 2″ ice cube in a tray of six. While this seemed like an amazing idea at first, we did not do as thorough of a job as possible when researching product viability and went with our product based on emotional connection rather than concrete fact. After we had decided on the product we did everything right. From professional pictures, to professional copyright, to even buying a course to show us the right way to build a profitable listing, I did not expect it to turn out the way it did. Launching the product was more expensive and emotionally draining than anything because of the amount of time and effort we put into the project and the lackluster results we were getting in return. After nearly 9 months with no help or any clear direction, I decided to read the book Vivid Vision by Cameron Herold and develop a projection of what my company would look like, feel like, and act like in three years’ time. After I took some time to reflect on this, I was able to put together a comprehensive vision for GenKool and exactly what I wanted it to look like. Part of my plan was to get a team of listing builders, product researchers, and listing optimizers to ensure that my products were viable and turning a profit. After some trial and error, I found a great company on Upwork to partner with as part of our company. It was at this point that we realized our first product, “The Old Glory Edition”, had failed and we had to come to terms with that. With rising fees on Amazon and low sales velocity, there was just simply no way that we could continue selling them on Amazon and expect to turn a profit. We have since had the remaining inventory mailed to our house for us to sell through our own means and have our team researching and developing new products for us to launch that will bring in profit. We are also setting up to launch on Walmart and Amazon to diversify our sales which is something I have wanted to do for some time and that was outlined in my Vivid Vision.
So, what did we learn from this experience? Well, we failed and had to eat our losses and pick up the pieces at the end of the day. However, we learned how to set up a business model where we can find and launch profitable products consistently without doing the heavy lifting ourselves. These kinds of pseudo passive income sources are what allow you to diversify your earnings and multiply them from different avenues all while not having to sacrifice your time. I was also able to use my Vivid Vision as a guide to get my way through failure and set up my company to reach success. This past year or so has been difficult for myself on Amazon. However, with the pieces I now have in place and the lessons I have learned from my experiences, I can now say that the pain of failure and the reframing of it into something positive was a necessary component to align myself on the journey towards success.
How do you reframe failure in your own endeavors?
The best advice I can give on this matter is to not expect to get it right on the first try. You will go through trial and error, possibly lose money, and take up a lot of your time and effort at first. However, when you set your state of thinking up from the beginning that you will run into hiccups and that these hiccups will only teach you lessons to make you more successful, you already have an advantage over everyone else who is trying to take a similar path that you are. When you hit the roadblock of failure, understand that it is not the end but rather just the beginning. To reach success, you will go through much more failure to get to the point in which success is achieved. Another way I like to think about failure is that if you reach it, you are likely doing something right. This is because failure is a tool that teaches you the lessons of success. It is impossible to find a successful person who didn’t overcome and learn from some sort of failure on their way to where they are now. You should not think any differently. If all successful people have one commonality, that they faced and overcame failure, then how is your failure any different? The answer is that it isn’t, and it only is when you perceive it differently. Reframe your thinking to embrace, learn from, and overcome failure, and you will surely reach success on your journey.