An essential element to entrepreneurship is embracing the risk of failure and learning from past mistakes. Failure comes with the territory. So, anyone who intends to pursue an entrepreneurial carrier must know that the road is not going to be easy one. However, there is stigma in the society while it comes to seeing failure as an essential part of our journey. We consider failure as something evil. Fear of failure paralyzes us, real failure kills our spirit. But the truth is all successful entrepreneurs failed more than once and they stood up every time they failed and tried again.
During second day of Global Entrepreneurship Summit 2015, three entrepreneurs shared their stories of how they overcame the legal, financial, and cultural consequences of failure to move on and build successful enterprises.
Redefining Failure: We need to redefine failure as entrepreneurs because you will fail so many times.
Jonathan Ortmans: Rather than calling it failure, think of it as a series of experiments
"@LailaMacharia: Ortmans: rather than calling it failure, think of it as a series of experiments. #FailingForward #GES2015Kenya"
— Norman Ondego (@nondego) July 26, 2015
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Loving the problem: Every problem is an opportunity in disguise. You need to be a little curious, bold, and tenacious to get there. Ortmans: In every problem, there is a gift. Seek the problem.
"@LailaMacharia: Ortmans: In every problem, there is a gift. Seek the problem. #FailingForward #GES2015Kenya"
— SokoAnalyst (@SokoAnalyst) July 26, 2015
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Focus is the key: You can build many things at a time. Narrow down, limit your choices, prioritize.
Odhiambo: when we reduced from 20 to 3 products, our focus paid off.
Odhiambo: when we reduced from 20 to 3 products, our focus paid off. #FailingForward #GES2015Kenya pic.twitter.com/6XlkNylpo6
— LailaMacharia (@LailaMacharia) July 26, 2015
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Not everyone will support you: Not everyone will support you in your early days. Very few people will. However, you will have to move forward. People will talk, get it done anyway. Fearlessly follow your dream. You will not have cheerleaders. ~Julian
Fearlessly follow your dream. You will not have cheerleaders. @JulianKyula #FailingForward #GES2015Kenya pic.twitter.com/kuJ22gTg00
— daniel makau (@thiskenyan) July 26, 2015
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Execution is the key. Get your hands dirty. Often people worry about if someone steals their idea. That's so naive. Stop worrying, start working. Build it big.
Keep building your idea but do not spend too much time protecting a bad idea.~ Julian Kyula
"@thiskenyan: Keep building your idea but do not spend too much time protecting a bad idea . @JulianKyula #GES2015Kenya #failingforward"
— Mkamboi Mwakale (@MkamboiMwakale) July 26, 2015
