We’ve already said that for entreprenuers, ‘no’ is like an adrenaline rush. Whether it’s friends & family (although they tend to say yes and so can’t be relied on for objectivity), the bank manager, colleagues or the local expert by virtue of age and volume of grey hair, the word ‘no’ has a stirring impact on entreprenuers.
Stubborness is a key feature of all entreprenuers. The refusal to give up, to carry on believing in the idea.
The successful entreprenuer though knows when to give up. There comes a point when in spite of all that self-belief, the entrepreneur has to put the idea down and move on.
Maybe the time hasn’t yet come for this particular idea, may be it never will.
Or as is the case with many ideas, there is just no commercial application or market for it.
The successful entreprenuer is the person who recognises when that time has come and when it’s time to admit that the doom-mongers were right.
Reaching the end of the money-pot is what brings most ideas to a premature end. For many people, if the money keeps on coming they just keep on going regardless.
Having the courage to publicly admit that the idea isn’t working is a major obstacle for most people. We would rather continue to show our self-belief, our stamina than admit we got it wrong.
The successful entreprenuer will be the one though that makes the decision to drop the idea while there is still money in the pot. And face the ‘I told you so’ crowd head-on.
Taking control of the situation not letting it take control of them.
Swallowing your pride and having enough resources left to start the next idea is vital.
Failure is just an opportunity to learn. Those that do make a success often have had a string of failures behind them and yes they did give up! But only on the idea that wasn’t working not on being successful one day.
And they don’t forget the ideas that failed. One day, maybe in different form, that ugly duckling will be transformed into a beautiful …. OK, bad metaphor but you get the drift.
