That’s the adage I was taught when I was younger. Now, being the black-and-white person that I am (especially when I was younger), I re-worded this as “If you can’t do it right the first time, don’t do it at all.” I didn’t feel like I could fail. Not only that, but I tried everything in my power to dot all the i’s and cross all the t’s, even if they only semi-related to what I was doing.<\/p>\n
Overcoming my fear of failure has been quite a challenge, especially as it is a signature part of entrepreneurship. The first time I heard, “Fail safe, fail fast” I was stunned. FAIL? You can’t fail! Are you kidding? Just imagine my surprise hearing VentureLab described as a “Fail-Safe Zone.” Where in the world is it safe to fail?<\/p>\n
Ultimately, it goes back to my identity being founded in the LORD, rather than in what I do.\u00a0I need to remember that no matter what happens in this life, \u201cChrist has overcome the world\u201d (John 16:33). There really is a difference between the “real me” and the “role me.”<\/p>\n
In David Mattson\u2019s adapted book of sales rules developed by David H. Sandler, he describes the difference between the two as \u201cyour self-identity\u201d and \u201cyour performance in a role\u201d (Mattson, 14). He goes on to say \u201c\u2026failure is not a reflection of the REAL-you, only the ROLE-you. These failures are nothing more than an indication that there is room for improvement in your \u2018salesperson skills\u2019\u201d (Ibid). I think this principle can be applied to all roles in life, not just sales. But in sales particularly, it’s important to remember that just because a lot of people have told you “no” does not mean that you are a reject. Whether pitching an idea, cold calling, or entering into a business plan competition failure is bound to follow at some points. But you or your idea failing is not a reflection on the “real you” – it’s a challenge for the “role you” to take on and learn from.<\/p>\n
I hope my children learn to see failure as a part of life and stepping stones in the learning experience. I hope they learn to embrace it as a challenge, rather than have the fear of failure permeate their being. They are first and foremost God\u2019s child, \u201cfearfully and wonderfully made\u201d (Psalm 149:14) \u2013 that is who they really<\/em> are, and so are you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “If you can’t do it right, don’t do it at all.” That’s the adage I was taught when I was younger. Now, being the black-and-white person that I am (especially when I was younger), I re-worded this as “If you can’t do it right the first time, don’t do it at all.” I didn’t feel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=801"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":803,"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801\/revisions\/803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}