Dealing with failures

Having dealt with so many at @OfBusiness, I was quizzed on my thoughts in dealing with them.

“Being in business is all about dealing with failures for me. A product gone wrong, a decision that didn’t look right, a team underperforming, a market that didn’t take off, an investment turned sour, etc.

The sexiest way to deal with them is to celebrate them. When I used to read about people doing that, I used to go, “wow”. I tried doing that at OfBusiness too. But trust me, each time I did that, I felt sick. I knew I was wrong.

The other proverb that I learnt early was that they were stepping stones to success. So one needs to feel good about them. It took me a while to understand that they may not be, and this feeling is too idealistic. They are just an event, and its ok to brood a bit, but a bit only.

The other was to procrastinate and assume that others/ Father Time would take care. Maybe even use the time to analyze. Not good, obviously, for anyone involved. No one sane does it, anyways.

The other is to pass/ take the blame for it. For a while, I thought it was great leadership to take the blame in case of a failure. But realized later that it’s just pure bravado, and you get taken for granted. Better to just keep it objective. Passing the blame to others is horrendous, not worth spending time over.

The other is to keep trying – chip and change, iterate, tweak till you get it right. It is a method that has worked for many, but whenever we have tried it, we have failed again, maybe because we are in a hurry to get it right. (And deep inside, a feeling lurks that the world is full of opportunities, if not this, then the next one awaits.)

The other is shut shunt. Move on. This is the art that we practice. We pilot, observe, fail often. Then spend a fleeting moment to vow not to commit the same mistake again. And then move #OntoNext.

Read more from CEO speaks Column:-
– Humility the Multiplier
– Data is (the new) Oil (Mukesh Ambani, 2017)