What does failing forward mean anyway? Its all a matter of perspective. It simply means to view every event you experience as feedback rather than a win or loss. Once you wrap your mind around this concept then the emotional roller coaster many experience in network marketing will instantly disappear.
When you are failing forward you will achieve the consistency required to build a network marketing business. You build this type of business on a day-by-day basis. Also, without emotions running wild, you can analyze your mistakes objectively and improve on them. Therefore, the way you view failures in your mlm business will ultimately determine the level of your success.
There are many factors involved in the concept of failing forward. You may be failing forward great in some areas while you may be failing backwards in others. By identifying these areas you can begin to work on them. Over time, you will change your overall perspective, and then start getting results in your business.
Ten areas for failing forward:
1. Realize that the difference between achievers and non-achievers is how they react to failure.
2. Learn a new definition of failing - feedback.
3. Remove yourself from failure.
Keep daily setbacks in perspective to the overall goal. It's just one small event on your path to success. One screw up will not make or break you.
4. Overcome the fear of failure by taking massive action.
The biggest thing you can do to practice failing forward is to take massive, consistent action toward your goal.
5. Accept responsibility for your mistakes to change your response to failure.
You must own them. Otherwise, you'll never get past those mistakes. You will fail the same way over and over again.
6. Don't let outside failures effect you internally.
Don't worry about stuff that happens to you that you have no control over. Just keep failing forward.
7. Forget the past. It's done.
You can't do anything about past mistakes other than learn from them and do better next time.
8. When you change your outlook, the world changes in your favor.
Once you begin to start failing forward, all those mistakes that used to really upset you don't seem to matter that much. In fact, you begin to see mistakes a positive thing. Remember it's just feedback. It's neither positive nor negative.
9. Get over yourself and start focusing on helping others.
When you do this in your business you're reaching a whole new level of failing forward. Every meeting you do, every person you call, and every time you take action to move your business forward will be a positive event regardless the outcome. You have reached out to someone who needed help and offered value to them. Either way you both win. Look at every person you encounter as a great opportunity to give an add value to that person expecting nothing in return. This is so powerful in this industry. Why? No one is doing it. Everyone is pitching and selling their opportunity rather than trying to help out others.
10. Find the opportunity in every bad experience you have.
Always have the mindset that no matter this outcome of this call or meeting, etc there will be some benefit to me. You usually just have to look for it. The problem is that most people are so upset about failing at the event they can't even see a huge opportunity or benefit that came from it.
This may seem like a ton of stuff to consider. It's not really. These are all aspects relating to failing forward. Like I mentioned you may already have the right mindset in some of these areas. Capitalize on these. Now you have identified some areas where you need some work at failing forward.
Just keep it simple. This is really important if you're just beginning in mlm. You are already given tons of new information and all this stuff can just clog up the works. If you get nothing else from this article just remember the concept that failing forward is changing your response to setbacks. Failure = Feedback.
That's it. One event won't make you or break you.
Failing forward is failing over and over again adjusting and improving along the way. Eventually you reach your intended outcome. Success is a journey not a destination. Keep failing forward and you are already successful.
Achieve Massive Success!
Steve Dooley
Internet and Network Marketing Trainer, Leadership Specialist
