Finding Winners

There are lots of stats out there about how many businesses fail. It is astounding that something close to 9 out of every 10 businesses fold in just a few years. With each of those businesses there are smart ambitious people with the best of intentions, plans, and money to get things off the ground.

With odds like that it’s amazing anyone every tries to start their own business right?

But from a different perspective, with those odds and the potential rewards of a success why doesn’t everyone keep trying to start businesses?

Every time you tackle a challenge like starting a new venture there is a tremendous learning curve.. how to hire/fire, how to raise financing, how to balance sales and marketing, what are your strengths and weaknesses, what should be delegated or contracted out. Nobody has all these skills in grade 5. There are no naturals. Everyone needs to learn.

With that context it’s easy to understand why early attempts to start something have a high likelyhood of failure. Most people need to learn by doing and it’s easy to make lots of mistakes before you’ve mastered the skills.

I think I’ve scratched off more than my share of losing tickets. But with each loser my confidence has improved in specific areas.

I think I’ve got a winner on my hands now.