As an environmental journalist I often find myself writing about ideas or projects that I know will become the focus of scrutiny and criticism. These articles get a stream of passionate comments. That’s not possible! they’ll say or It will never work! What are they thinking?
But I write about them anyway.
I do this not because I’m oblivious to the possibility that these ideas may fail in the real world or because I lack sufficient knowledge about what makes a project feasible. I write because in the new ideas, in the new projects and in the new visions are the makings of success, no matter how many ‘failures’ these endeavors may find along the path.
I’ve never met a successful business person who has never failed. Starting a business is at best an educated bet and at worst a tough learning experience. It’s also what I would call a win-win because even in failure, something is gained by the wise. The truth is that in business, as in life, it’s superior to try, even when failure is an option.
Failure is always a possibility. But allowing this to deter you from pursuing your dreams or from starting a business or from presenting an idea is in itself a failure of a much bigger scale. It is with that belief that I write about new ideas, no matter how absurd or far-fetched they may seem, because it’s not the critic who counts but those who face failure as only one of many possible outcomes.
As part of the ongoing b5media Apprentice Challenge the remaining b5 biz bloggers have been asked What one blog post or article might I suggest to our small business owner, Kay, that’ll help her move forward at this point? My answer is There is No Effort Without Error and Shortcoming.
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*The b5media “Apprentice Challenge” is in its final weeks…check out the great blogs who are still in the running: Bookkeeping Solver, Biz Chicks Rule, Greener Assets, Leadership Turn, Small Business Boomers, Successful Blog, Yielding Wealth, Home Biz Notes
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