It is not the critic who counts, Part I

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

This, by Theodore Roosevelt, is one of the great, inspiring speeches in all of human history. In a single paragraph, it perfectly depicts the native heroism of the human condition. Often quoted, it bears quoting again, and again and again, because every time you read it, it renews your faith in yourself, and reminds you that succeeding is not about not stumbling, but about getting up, again and again, after you’ve stumbled (again and again).

Perhaps you noticed that “again” was repeated, again and again. As was said of Hamlet, “Though this be madness, yet there is method in it.” In part II, we’ll be looking at the method in this madness.

You are failing… you just don’t know it.

Sorry, but yes… you are failing,

You don’t know you are failing,

So, you need a system that lets you know exactly when failure is happening.

Yes, believe it or not, there is Science behind Failure, and without it we would all be doomed to living in a Zombie status.

When you start a business to “see what happens” there is NO failure, because you will ALWAYS succeed at “seeing what happens” so, when failure happens you just let it spread and do nothing about it until you are neck deep in the bad stuff that failure brings along.

So most entrepreneurs soothe themselves by repeating:

“No worries, its a fall, but I learned a lot”

Now, according to Eric Ries in the Lean Startup, learning a lot is USELESS, unless such learning truly leads to progress. Of course, progress, is a wide term, but that discussion will have to wait to the next post.

How to know when failure is happening? 

Define the Problem/desire, –> Propose a Solution –> State your hYpothesis, –> Experiment –> Analyze results

A hYpothesis is a statement that you must prove as True or False. When  Experiments yield False, Failure has happened, and its time to analyze and pivot.

Great news! This means that you found a series of learnings that DO NOT lead to success, and that is actual value.

So, according to your initial hypothesis, are you failing today? Perhaps its time for a pivot?

Next post: What does Entrepreneurial Progress actually mean?

 

Stay tuned for more stuff from the guilty guy L Berea