🌟 5 Ways to Embrace Failure

Hey, Flawsome human.

Happy Wednesday! This week is going to be a little bit different, I would love your feedback on this switch-up. Tying todays edition into a personal experience.

I have openly shared the failure of my food business that I launched in 2019, and shut down in January of this year.

It was one of the messiest times of my life; lawsuits, endless phone calls, collectors showing up at my house, ongoing distributor chargebacks, and sleepless nights.

…Bankruptcy.

Throughout all of it, I somehow was able to stay grounded and accept my truth. I have learned how to cope with failure and openly share my story, shame-free.

So, this is going to be a handful of things I did to get me through this big, fat, L.

But L in this case is not a LOSS, it’s a LESSON.

😔 How to deal with failure 😔

Have you ever failed? Most likely you have. Well, CONGRATULATIONS! Not only does it mean you tried something, it means you care.

Here are five tips to embrace your failure:

1️⃣ Feel the loss: failing isn’t fun, and none of us set out to fail. Process the emotions you’re going through. Take a break & don’t rush into something new right away. I made the mistake of jumping into something too soon and it only delayed the grieving process. We often make irrational decisions when we’re in an emotional state, so allow the dust to settle. Take care of your mental & physical health. Journal.

2️⃣ Learn from your mistakes: before moving on from your L, analyze it from an objective perspective. What went wrong? What could have been done differently? Careful not to beat yourself up - it can be easy to slip up & start staying “I wish……” but you can’t change the outcome. Understand what went wrong so you can learn from it and not make the same mistake twice.

I, personally, learned to NEVER personally guarantee business loans & to have a really good accountant & bookkeeper. 😅

3️⃣ Have conversations: this was the biggest help for me. I started talking to friends & other entrepreneurs. Reach out to people and create a space where you can openly share your experiences. Most people won’t publicly share their failures, so we assume they don’t happen… but this couldn’t be further from the truth. When I started talking to close friends, I learned that some of them actually filed bankruptcy in the past as well.

4️⃣ Get inspired: Look up the founders of your favourite product/service. Read their stories. They have failed, guaranteed. If you want to succeed, you have to be willing to fail. I googled ‘famous entrepreneurs who filed bankruptcy.’ Guess who was on the list? Henry Ford, Walt Disney, Milton Hershey… we know their names because they tried again after failing.

5️⃣ Don’t keep it a secret: secrets can make us feel shame. Shame holds power over us. The second you decide that YOU are in power, that’s where growth really happens. If you want to take it one step further, share your failure on social media. Talk about what went wrong & what you learned.

I want to leave you with this quote that I’ve heard from several entrepreneurs & has struck with me over the years. I hope it’ll remind you why it’s so important to show up authentically:

“We’re most qualified to help the person we used to be.”

In the past few months, I’ve talked to ~15 founders about my business failure & bankruptcy process, because they are about to cross the same bridge. If I didn’t share my failure, I would have never had these conversations.

We’re better when can we help each other, and check our egos at the door.

Have a flawsome day, thanks for being here.

-Erica

P.S. feel free to say hello on LinkedIn 👋 or reply to this email and let me know what you thought of today’s newsletter.