Why you’re more likely to fail in business if you don’t continually learn
Failure is something that we all experience. Regardless of career, everyone faces times when they make mistakes and don’t achieve planned objectives.
In business, 90 per cent of startups fail and some of the most prolific people in history have failed at some point. Oprah Winfrey, a billionaire famed for her candid interviews, was fired when she worked as a news anchor in Baltimore. During a commencement speech at Harvard in 2013, she admitted: “It doesn’t matter how far you might rise. At some point, you are bound to stumble.”
Steve Jobs, Sir James Dyson, JK Rowling, Albert Einstein and many others also succeeded in the face of failure.
I believe the companies and people more likely to fail in the long-term are the ones that don’t continually learn from their mistakes. Given our technologically advanced era, things are always changing: what you know today will likely become outdated tomorrow.
To succeed, you can’t assume that you know everything and must accept that any career or business is a constant learning curve. As an entrepreneur, I’ve faced my fair share of challenges and failures. From developing a USP to raising investment, these are things I had never done before launching my first business. But I was hungry to learn and succeed.
Embracing a mindset of continuous learning is vital to success. You must constantly push yourself out of your comfort zone, embrace failure and take those lessons on. If you’re not continuously improving, you will come to a standstill and struggle to evolve.
First, you should set a plan of the things you want to achieve. Doing this will keep you on track. At the same time, you don’t have to learn on your own. By learning with a friend or colleague, you’ll be able to teach each other things and be more motivated. When it comes to learning a new skill or improving your work, practise and repeat all the time.
It’s also important to take breaks. Taking a step back from your busy schedule can be challenging, but you’ll gain a lot from having some headspace to think about what you did well, what you didn’t do so well, and how you can improve each quarter.
Talking with your peers will help you improve too. Every week, as a team, we go through our big wins and big losses. By doing this, you can see what you need to address and the resources required. Make sure that you’re transparent, provide feedback, and understand what has been learned.
Finally, read as much as possible. Whether it’s business or history, books enable you to learn from the mistakes of others. I’ve gained so much from reading books like “Transforming Psychological Worldviews to Confront Climate Change” by F. Stephan Mayer and “The Populist Explosion: How the Great Recession Transformed American and European Politics” by John B. Judis. The first taught me about the importance of tackling climate change as a business. And the second gave me a great overview of populist movements – something relevant for building a business.
We are always formulating ideas, finding solutions to real-life problems and overcoming different challenges. Unless you continuously learn, you can’t innovate and achieve great things. Learning should be at the forefront of everything you do.
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