Are you ready to fail? (Saturated Market)

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Are you ready to fail?

Personal Strategy You've got that big presentation coming up. You've rehearsed it a thousand times, checked your powerpoint slides meticulously, and you're sure you're going to ace it. But what happens if you don't? Nobody goes into a presentation expecting to fail; but are you prepared for it if you do?

The best laid plans

It's bound to happen. Everybody, at one point or another, falls short. It happens. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and move on. But for anyone who's ever stood in front of a group of people with a weighty silence hanging in the air, it feels like the end of the world. I know. I've been there. You probably have too. And if you haven't, you will...and maybe you should.

Pobody's nerfect

As I said, it's almost inevitable that at least once, the presentation won't be right. Maybe you forget the powerpoint (or bring the wrong copy). Or the projector doesn't work. Or your client was expecting a much lower cost. Or maybe it was just a bad idea that should have died on the drawing board. Sometimes it's just not in the cards to succeed. That is why you should prepare so that if you ever find yourself in a losing situation you can turn it around.

Try a fire drill

After a particularly embarrassing presentation (thankfully in a classroom setting) of a terrible idea, I was absolutely stunned. I still hesitate to talk about it. I told a relative who's taken a keen interest in my fledgling career (being in nearly the same industry) about it to see what she thought. After she finished laughing at the idea, she told me that I had probably had the best learning experience of my life. She told me that these things happen. And the fact that I got my first taste of it when it didn't matter was a stroke of brilliant luck. In fact, she said, this should be a mandatory activity: present and defend a bad idea. Because if you can learn how to stand up to harsh criticism, shrug off the stress and maybe even spin the idea to make it work, you will be a superstar down the road. Maybe we all need this, in the end. So I encourage you to arrange for a low-consequence environment where you can totally bomb, and learn how to deal with failure.

A painful lesson

I know, this sounds ludicrous. I'm not suggesting you set out to fail. Nor am I implying that any successes so far are dumb luck. What I'm getting at is, sometimes you need to fall off the bike to learn to ride. Sure, you'll scrape your knee and it'll hurt. But if you get past that and get back on, you'll be the better for it. You can recognize the warning signs, you start to learn what makes it go wrong and how to correct for it, and you gain greater confidence for it. I can now tell myself, "that wasn't the end of the world. Move on, get better, and if another presentation goes sour, it's okay. I'll bounce back in the end."

Try it out. Fail once, and learn how not to fail again. Because if you pay attention and focus on the facts instead of the negative, you won't make the same mistake twice.

Until next time,