No one likes to admit they've failed. In business and in life people are rewarded and praised for success. That ends up creating a culture where we don't learn from failure, and could end up repeating mistakes.
After years of research, in which he found that businesses that are accepting of mistakes have better employee and financial performance, Bradley University management professor Laurence Weinzimmer was inspired to write a different kind of business book.
"We bought the 25 top leadership books on the market and read them all. They all basically said the same thing. It's that you need to emulate great leaders and if you do, you’ll be successful yourself," Weinzimmer says, "they want you to believe the sky is always blue and the road is always smooth, but the sky is not always blue and the road is not always smooth. What we found with most of our interviews was that most leaders told us the most important lessons came from their toughest challenges, not from imitating somebody else’s success."
That led to "The Wisdom Of Failure", published earlier this year. Here are six of the most enduring lessons to be learned from failure, without having to go through it yourself:
Know when to quit
After significant financial, emotional, or psychological investment in something, business owners can have a hard time admitting defeat. News Corp. spent $580 million on MySpace in 2006 and poured investment into it for years and years as it bled market share to Facebook. It was eventually sold for $34 million.
When you've poured time, energy, and money into something it's hard to write it off as a loss. If you can't, you may end up losing more.
Say no to a quick buck
The CEO of LA Gear grew his company from $11 to $820 million in sales in just four years. Chasing three high dollar opportunities killed the company. They sold excess product at deep discounts which diminished the brand, invested heavily outside of its core competency in basketball shoes, and offered low-end shoes at Wal-Mart. The CEO couldn't say no to chasing more money, and paid the price.
Rapid expansion, creating a new product line, or moving beyond a core business seem at first glance like a way to grow quickly. Often, you end up losing focus instead.
Don't get defined by other businesses
Coke was lured into one of the greatest business mistakes of all time by Pepsi. "Project Kansas," which became New Coke was sparked by the Pepsi Challenge. Panicked by seeming obsolete, Coke played by Pepsi's rules, was blinded by flawed taste tests and changed its formula.
If you spend too much time concentrating on what others do, it's easy to fall into a trap.
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