Failure is Not a Mistake, but Opportunity to Learn

Failure is Not a Mistake, but Opportunity to Learn

Are you going through life trying to avoid mistakes and limit change? Are you a person that welcomes opportunities for challenge and embraces failure? Success is not made from doing everything right all the time. Being someone great takes failing many times before getting it right. Why has our society trained us to think that failing is a bad thing? Working as a team is called cheating in school. No person is right all the time. There are going to be mistakes and accidents. Our goal is to learn from them, not avoid them.

Look at life like a giant game of chutes and ladders. There are moments when rolling the dice gets you high numbers and can excel easily up the mountain. Then a mistake happens and life slides you back a few steps. Do you quit playing the game? No! Why in life after sliding back some do some people just stopping playing? So many people just want to be safe versus excel. I am hoping that since you are reading this blog posts you are one of the few people that want to keep climbing the ladder no matter how many times the slide brings you temporarily down. No one says you have to stop rolling the dice. The game ends when our life ends, that is it. We decide on what level of the board we end on. I know where I will be. Who else would like to join me at the winner’s circle? 

The more mistakes you make when starting your midwifery business, the faster you will make it a successful business. We can learn from books, hearing about what other people have done right or wrong, but nothing is a better teaching in life than action and growing from your mistakes. Don’t hide from them or lie that they didn’t exist. Otherwise, you won’t learn and expand your knowledge base. 

There have been many times I have made a mistake with a patient, said the wrong thing to an employee, made an incorrect investment in a partner, and paid too much for marketing products. How can we learn if we don’t analyze our decisions, talk with a trusted colleague, and improve our business plan? I used to feel ashamed and embarrassed telling people I chose to stop my midwife business to refocus my life. I used to feel like failing in other people’s eye meant I wasn’t good enough. I now know that my mind is all I have to worry about listening too. I don’t care what other people think. 

We get one life. What do you want out of it? Do you want to run a birth center? Do you want to empower women by focusing on legislature or research? I used to think I could serve women best but holding her hand during labor. I know that with soul searching and doing personal development. My life’s purpose is empowering women and our communities for a greater purpose. I dream big with no limits anymore. Barriers are only obstacles I haven’t figured out how to beat, versus “this is all I can do in life.”

Right now, I am working on a business plan for create a massive birth center franchise. It will easily be a $20-30 million start up costs. Two years ago, I thought in numbers around $200,000-300,000 start up costs was all I could do for starting a successful midwifery practice. After taking business classes, attending financial courses, watching personal development seminars, and reading inspirational books, I know anything is possible. If there is a dream, find the tools to make it a reality. If someone says you can’t do that, just remember, they can’t do that. 

You are going to make mistakes in life and business. Grow and learn from them. Don’t try to hide from them. Those mistakes will keep happening, because acknowledgement of them didn’t exist. When our society starts doing more encouragement of failure and applauding of mistakes and triumphs, massive growth and change will start occurring. We, as humans, are more focused on acceptance with society than personal potential. Once you realize your mind is the only thing holding you back from your wildest dreams and accomplishments, you will get past the glass ceiling effect placed on you. 

There will be ups and downs in your midwife business. Enjoy the highs and don’t run from the lows. Recognize them for their causes and grow from that. Fail, please fail, and learn from them. I encourage you to announce your accomplishment and failures to the world. Remember, we are all human and shouldn’t treated like anything more than that.