Entrepreneurs reveal their failures en route to success

some of the UK's most successful entrepreneurs share their tips for business success - as well as revealing some of their biggest mistakes, and the lessons they learned.

Sir Richard Branson, founder, Virgin Group

"I suppose our most famous failure - if you can call it that - was trying to take on Coca-Cola for a year. We were doing fantastically well in the shops that we were in. Coke literally sent a 747 full of squat teams and money over, and our stocks started disappearing off the shelves. They managed to squash us, and the lesson was that you need to be better than the people you are competing with.

"My advice is five words: screw it; just do it."

Jo Malone, founder, Jo Malone and Jo Loves

"I've made hundreds of mistakes.

"When we launched our brand Jo Loves, we hadn't checked Google properly despite spending a lot of money on the IP [intellectual property]. We then found out there was someone else top of the Google list with a similar name as ours, selling vibrators. I hadn't checked. That was my biggest mistake and I had to really dust myself off and pick myself up.

"Sometimes the business you failed at takes you on a journey to something far greater down the road."

Gerald Ratner, founder of geraldonline.com, and former chief executive, Ratner Group

"Asking me about my worst mistake is a bit like asking the captain of the Titanic.

"I was asked to do a speech in 1991 for the Institute of Directors. I put a couple of jokes in, and one was about a 99p pair of earrings we sold - the same price as a Marks & Spencer sandwich - and I joked that the sandwich would last longer. And then I compounded that by talking about a £4.99 sherry decanter we sold, and I said the reason it was so cheap was because it was crap.

"The aftermath of that was that people boycotted my shops; the tabloid press in particular painted this as me making fun of my customers, which is something I would never do. They treated me as a tabloid punchbag, and it was enough to make me resign after 18 months of hanging on.

"It was a terrible experience to go through. It was a very sad end after 20 years of building my business, and it took seven years to get back on my feet.

"My advice is: don't give up. You will be rejected, but being rejected is actually the route to success. Celebrate that, because you have to go through that a few times before you achieve your goal."

Doug Richard, former Dragon and founder, School for Start-ups

"I accept the fact I'm engaged in a high-risk activity. If there's no risk there's no reward.

"I sold my second business, a software company, to a large public corporation. I took shares instead of cash and 89 days later those shares dropped by 99% and I was wiped out.

"The advice I'd give is to take cash."

Richard Reed, founder, Innocent Drinks and Jam Jar Investments

"When we started out we had one company which made our plastic bottles, and one company which bottled the crushed fruit into those bottles.

"They were totally unconnected businesses, but at separate stages both rang us and said they would no longer be able to manufacture our bottles or pack our smoothies. They only gave us 24 hours' notice. Overnight we would cease to have a business.

"We manoeuvred our way through it but it definitely taught us: focus on your Plan A, but know what to do if there's an emergency.

"If you sit around waiting until you are 100% certain or 100% confident, I don't think it's ever going to happen."

Peter Stringfellow, founder, Stringfellows nightclub

"I'm 73 years old. I've been in business nearly 50 years. I've made so many mistakes. The thing about mistakes is that you have to learn from them. Make a lot of mistakes, as long as you make a few successes.

"And don't be frightened of failure. If you really are entrepreneurial and have the passion to go forward, a few failures don't count."

Liz Earle, founder of Liz Earle Skincare

"The biggest mistake I think we made was not taking on more help in the early days. My partners and I were young mums at the time, and we were working 20-hour days. I think with hindsight we should have been kinder on ourselves, and brought in a team of specialists and experts earlier than we did.

"My one piece of advice would be not to rush things. It's incredibly tempting to accept every opportunity, even if you're not ready.

"We have an expression: if it has to be 'now', it has to be 'no'. It's really important to not get pushed into making quick decisions. I take the view that it is better to crawl, and then walk, and then run."

Dale Murray, angel investor

"I have taken some people too much at face value. I'm quite straightforward, and I thought other people would be the same. Most of them are but some people aren't. When you get those guys who aren't trustworthy and have different motivations from you, it can be quite hurtful.

"The entrepreneurs we look for dust themselves down and get back on the horse again."

via bbc

Why Should You Embrace Discomfort? Opportunity, Of Course.

If you are like most people, your first response to the idea of embracing discomfort is probably, “Why exactly would I want to do that?” Our minds are not wired to naturally welcome uncomfortable or seemingly perilous situations. The lower center of our brain suggests quite the opposite: run away!

So why embrace discomfort? In a word: opportunity. Sales-boosting opportunity. Life-changing opportunity. Studies consistently show that the most successful salespeople in the world embrace discomfort. In fact, they thrive on it -- that’s what sets them apart from the pack.

Consider the observation of John J. Ratey, MD, in his book A User’s Guide to the Brain: “The physical and mental responses to fear were so important to the survival of primitive man that they remain very powerful and long-lasting to this day. Unfortunately, this adaptive response is not always appropriate in today’s world. Our civilization has evolved away from the need to over-respond, but we still do.”

Discomforts, even in sales, fall into this “response-to-fear” category. Our brains are wired to understand fear as a threat and act accordingly, with little to no conscious effort on our part. While our higher reasoning skills allow us to discern the difference between the threat of a saber-toothed tiger and the comparatively mild discomfort of dealing with a non-responsive customer, the primitive part of our brain registers both situations as threats, thus triggering what psychologists call the flight instinct. This instinct is one of the forces that compels us to flee from a threat -- any threat. When we place discomfort in the category of “fear,” we are naturally tempted to avoid it at all costs.

Here is the good news: You’ve got it in you to embrace discomfort and thus to do amazing things. And to succeed, you can -- you must -- embrace discomfort. You have the power to do this. You can make bold choices. This fact is proven over and over by the most successful salespeople. They are not freaks of nature nor have they been injected with some kind of Stepford Wives sales chip. They are made of the exact same stuff you are.

Easier said than done, right? Here are the steps to take to prepare you to embrace discomfort:

1. Identify the uncomfortable moments. Think about the moments that cause even the slightest knot in your stomach. The cold call. The price objection. Asking for the sale. Follow-up. You know what the moments are.

2. Plan your response before you face the discomfort. Most people are reactive to their discomforts -- top professionals are proactive. They decide in advance how they will respond.

3. Rehearse. Like an actor in a play, put yourself in that moment and go over it again and again. State your response out loud. Feel it. Breathe it. Live it.

4. Keep calm and be bold. When you anticipate and prepare for your discomfort, you will be ready when it bubbles up. Take a deep breath and enjoy the moment. You’ve already made your decision on how to respond, now you simply need to carry that decision out.

When it comes to sales, one doesn’t have to go looking for uncomfortable situations to embrace. Discomforts abound in the sales world. So, the question is, how strong is your desire to excel?

Be bold in the face of discomforts and watch your productivity soar. More importantly, be bold -- and you can change your customer’s world.

via inc