I was reading an interview with James Dyson (of Dyson vacuum fame) this morning and came across one of the best lessons for anyone aspiring to grow their own business and fortune.
Dyson commented on the challenges of inventing anything new or extremely worthwhile as living a life of “failure” – not in the negative sense you or I may view failure, but as a means to an end.
He went on to highlight 5000+ “failures” to invent his famous vacuum before he hit the right design.
Why would ANYONE stick to something through 5000 failures?
We often see business people today quit after 1, 2 or 3 failures…what can we learn from this?
ENTREPRENEUR’S DO IT BECAUSE THEY “HAVE” TO…
This to me is THE difference between Entrepreneurs and those that are simply looking for an easy way to make money.
Read any bio from a successful, serial entrepreneur and you will that it is in their DNA to try, fail and try again…it’s simply the way we function, the way it HAS to be.
Entrepreneurs expect to fail so they can learn and get a half-step further toward their goal…failures are not viewed as negatively as doing nothing. The risk perception is flipped over non-entrepreneurs.
That’s why a good deal of people will never have their own successful business, they just don’t have that flipped risk perception…they view trying and failing as more risky than not trying.
Nothing wrong with that…I will never be a great artist because frankly art for me is painful.
I was reading a recent bio on Stevie Ray Vaughan (I’m into blues guitar and he was one of the greats).  It’s only one line in a 500-page book, but it says everything to me…”Music was everything in his life, playing the guitar is all he ever wanted to do and he practiced for 5-hours a day – he even slept with his guitar.
That’s why he became great – he had passion AND he worked damned hard AND he persisted in the face of many setbacks.
Sorry for the rant…just been on my mind for a while.
LEAVE YOUR OPINION…
Leave a comment and let us know what you believe is the biggest difference between successful entrepreneurs and those that either do not try or do not stick with their business dreams.
