How we address failure will determine our success.  The pain of failure is great.  It may keep us up at night and ruin our relationships and hurt those we care about.   When confronted with failure, it is our opportunity to change and bring success into our business.

Small business growth is about embracing change.  It is an immutable law that you cannot grow without change.  Taken one step further if you don’t learn new ways of looking at things then you and your business will never change and probably not be successful.

Nobody wants to fail in business.  As a self-employed business owner your entrepreneurial instincts tell you in the beginning that you will succeed at the business you are creating.

Then after a short period of time, or it could be years you have to come face to face with the fact your business and your life is headed in the wrong direction.

Understand two things about failure:

1.  It is the accumulation of many small errors in judgement

2.  These errors are accumulated over a period of time.

Usually, failure usually is not one grand event.  It is the culmination of many things that lead to the signature event everyone remembers.  Failure is subtle.

Learn how to detect failure.  Correct the small errors as you go along by developing new disciplines.  A new discipline may be a different way of doing things or a better way of thinking.  Both of these demand that meaningful change must take place.

You have a choice when it comes to change.  You succeed when you embrace change.  You fail when you let change run over you.  Discipline yourself to embrace change and you will increase your odds of success.

Too often when we are self-employed we focus on outside circumstances and things.  In a way, we let them lead our lives.  One of the steps to business success is to be a business owner who knows how to filter the good from the bad.  What I am referring to is your ability to let the good stuff in and to keep the bad stuff out.

Think about it.  Most of the information you receive is because you allow yourself to receive it.  One of the keys to leading yourself to have small business growth and to growth in  life is to look at what you are allowing into your mind.  I have worked with many business owners who see remarkable improvement when they start filtering out the negative information that comes to them.

After all, if you have no control over something there is very little need to keep being informed about it.  Certainly, it is okay to know that it exists.  But, to continually focus on something that you can’t control creates two negatives.

1.  You feel a sense that you are powerless.  This will actually keep you from leading yourself and your business forward. 

2.  The second thing is that once you receive negative information and keep bringing it up it is like bringing up something from the past that you can’t change.  When you can’t change something it will rob you of the initiative to move forward in your business and your life.

You may ask why is developing this filtering mechanism important to your well being.  Remember two things. 

1.  In small business coaching and coaching success I have business owners focus on the fact that their mind is a muscle.  You can lead yourself well by feeding your mind with good positive thoughts. 

2.  Secondly, owning your own businesss andleading yourself in your business and life is not as much about managing time as it is about managing energy.  Time management work is important.  But, the results of time management will be reflected in the level of energy you maintain.

When you are focusing on the present and the future, and the positive they can bring, then you will have the energy.  More importantly, when you have the energy you can carve out the time to do those things that will allow you to design the business and life of freedom and abundance you desire.

Follow the steps to business success and you will lead yourself to the business and life you desire.