Raise a Toast to Failure
Instead of hiding our
failings, we need to speak openly about failure, even evangelise it
The fear of failure is the
biggest im pediment to India being a truly Startup Nation. We have about 5,000
startups a year, but we should be having half a million for a country of our
size. And my hypothesis, partly from interacting with many entrepreneurs at all
stages and ages of their career, is that most of them sit on the fence as they
are afraid to fail.
The truth is that we all
fail -not once, not twice but over a hundred times.In business, as in life,
failure is a stronger motivation than success.
Unfortunately, in India, we
have grown up with failure being considered a stigma.That fear is so strong
that the first time we falter or fail, it feels like our last, and that
paralysis stops most of us from getting out of the starting gate. Instead, we
all need to speak openly about failure, even evangelise it -raise a toast to it
as a part of the journey, as a very essential part of daily life and learnings.
I have always been intrigued by failure, it fascinates me. I wonder why people
ask others about their successes. Why don't they question them on their
failures instead, and all of us have had so many. I wonder why people don't
embrace failure; instead they insulate themselves against it and make success
even more elusive.
How I Stumbled
Like every experienced
entrepreneur, I've had my share of failures at every stage. But I lived my life
on the conviction that tomorrow will still be there, no matter how dire today
feels. This belief got me through many of the lowest moments in my professional
life and entrepreneurial career. Failure is never really the end of the road,
but your inability to put that behind you and focus on moving forward is.
Looking back on more than
two decades of constant engagement with one business endeavour or the other, I
see a pattern.India, in general, lacks confidence as a country of entrepreneurs
and leaders. Of course, there are exceptions but those are too few. Confidence
is built over time. Not all of us with dreams are capable of jumping off the
cliff, even when the water is deep. And when we summon up the courage to take
the leap, some of us are so petrified by the idea that we forget to breathe
once we hit water and simply drown.
My entrepreneurial journey
has seen as many failures as high points. But my best learnings and, more
importantly, my conviction in myself and the confidence I built over the years
came from the failures. When we pioneered Cable TV -way back when television
sets did not even have remotes -it seemed like an idea every one would pounce
on. After all, it seemed obvious that people would want to watch multiple
channels rather than just the state-run Doordarshan. Not quite. A year and more
than 3,000 personal, door-to-door visits later, I had no takers, not one sub
scriber. It seemed like a failure. That's when conviction comes to the fore. We
stayed the course, knowing we could turn this around -and we even tually did.
Many years later, we
forayed into Home Shopping -via TV way before ecommerce was part of the
vocabulary. We knew the challenges: India was not ready to shop without
touching and feeling the products; credit card penetration was abys mal; home
delivery was a logistical nightmare; but we went ahead regardless. It was
clearly a business before its time and a high-profile failure for me, but it
taught me ways of seeing and dissecting the ecosystem like never before.
When we launched our movie
studio, five of our first eight movies were flops, some complete disasters. By
any standards, it was a failure.
Most leaders, executives
and founders would have run for the exit door with such a public drubbing, but
again we held on -with a mindset that we had no other choice. We looked at each
flops as a setback: our resilience only grew and our conviction in ourselves
became stronger.
Road to Recovery
Failure means something
different for everyone. But if you want to succeed, failure can never be an
endpoint. Be clear about what failure means to you. Stop thinking that failure
is a roadblock. Dealing with the inevitability of failure should be cathartic,
not crushing. Even the way you think of failure and the language you use to
describe it makes all the difference. Take the stigma out of the word. Think of
failures as just setbacks. And when you experience a setback, you reconsider,
recalibrate and rebound. What's worked for me over the years is this:
recalibrating and considering my worst-case scenarios, gauging my ability to
cope and working on viable solutions without panicking. Once you can do that,
you're already on the road to recovery.
Ninety-nine percent of us
feel we are unequal to a task at some point in our lives, that others are
better off than us. Leadership or entrepreneurship provokes us to confront and
conquer that myth, overcome our fear of failure and welcome it, with open arms,
into our lives.
|
Ronnie Screwvala
|
ETM3APR16
No comments:
Post a Comment