Trial and Error

Trial and Error

One of the great things I’ve learned this semester in listening to the Hero stories, reading case studies, and watching inspirational talks, is that failure is part of life, career, and business. An entrepreneur I look up to because of his fearless, brash attitude in business and life is Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Records, Virgin Atlantic, etc., etc. He has experienced great success and also failure. He candidly writes about both and how one can learn from each.

The reason he seems so fearless is because he feels that if you have not failed then you have not taken any risk. Not taking risk guarantees that you will experience little or nothing new and he thinks that is a terrible way to live your life or do business. Overcoming the fear of failure is key to taking risk. Taking risk is meant to feel scary, but he says that just makes it interesting and exciting.

Branson has certainly led an exciting life with plenty of failure to overcome. One of his greatest failures was his attempt to enter the lucrative soft-drink business with Virgin Cola. He spent millions on promotion and advertising and priced his product 15-20 percent lower than brand giants Coke and Pepsi, but failed to make a profit. His biggest learning experience from this failure was to never underestimate your competition. He learned that Coke and Pepsi are not “sleeping giants” that are complacent or not protective of their market share. Another recent and devastating failure recently, was the crash of his Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo last year. Branson and those working to make public space travel a reality have learned much from the accident and are moving forward. They recently announced a partnership with NASA to share technology and test facilities. They have also been able to achieve commercial success with LauncherOne, a small satellite launching service.

He notes that the only time a failure is a true failure is when you do not learn from it. He said, “There were countless times during our record-breaking hot-air balloon trips when I wondered whether we were going to make it back down to Earth alive. But every time, I learned lessons from making mistakes during previous trips and was able to adapt.” Richard Branson sums it up this way, “Failure is never easy, but it’s an inevitable part of every personal and business journey. It’s important to realize this. Most, if not all, of the world’s finest minds, innovators and game-changers have failed at some point. However the reason that they eventually succeeded was because they didn’t let their failings deter them.”

My plan of action to implement a life and business strategy around these concepts will be one that puts the fear of failure in proper perspective. One of the things I need to do if I launch another business will be to take the time to look back at my failures and document why they happened and what I can do in a future venture that would minimize these risks. I will continue to look to other leaders and examples of courage for ways I can implement their positive attitudes in my life and business. One of the greatest things I learned from my failures was that they were temporary. I will have faith in and hold fast to the Lord’s counsel to Joseph in Liberty Jail when he said, “And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.” D&C 122:7