How my view towards failing changed

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My first business didn't work out well.

It did take me a while for me to recover mentally and financially.

But 3 years in and I look back that it's not a big deal to make mistakes.

It actually helps you to reflect on it, and gives you hints on how you could improve.

Without failing it's difficult to improve and become better. It's about how you view and act towards failure that is crucial. 

The more mistakes you make earlier in life the better

Before starting the business, I always seemed to have the pressure that I had to succeed. Or to be right and correct all the time.

But actually it's the opposite. I need to make a lot of mistakes, and learn to get back up as fast as possible for the next challenge.

I realized this when my mother kept repeating that "I failed my business" every time we talked on the phone.

My mom sounded like it was the end of the world while I was beginning to think it might be the start of something new.

Well, when you lose a lot of things due to failure, it forces you to consider, "what did I do wrong?"and "how can I make it work next time?"

The most important thing is to not repeat the same mistakes.

In order to do that, I need to make the first mistake.

My answer to my mom has been,

"What's wrong with failing? I'm engaged with the process of starting over."

I read from a book that you fail 3 times in business and you will have a good chance of succeeding, because it hurts when you fail. So we learn to ask good questions to ourselves to prevent it.

Failing helps me to improve now

When I was working part time as a cashier, I made a mistake.

But mistakes happen. So it's not very healthy to focus on failure. 

When I made the mistake, I had some people furious about the matter, but there were also others that focused on how to not repeat the mistake.

I also realized I changed. Before I would be upset or ashamed of making the mistake.

But now the first thing I do when there is a mistake is to immediately ask, "I'm sorry about that. I don't want to repeat the same mistake, so can you help me figure out why I made the mistake, and how to prevent it from happening again?"

Then we will think and find a solution. Asking the right question most people will help you. The first solution might turn out to fail again, but in a few times I could really prevent it from happening again.

What I am working on not to fail again on my business

I plan to start a business in a few years again. 

But I'm a little more careful not to fail again.
  1. Start small. Forget about succeeding quickly.
  2. Take the steps it takes for the long journey.
  3. No hiring people before I generate enough money to do so. In fact, I don't think I will choose a business that needs hiring.
  4. Treasure good long term habits.
  5. Have space for things not to work out
I started to write a blog on what I'm interested in, education and food. I will explore as I blog on what my next business will be.

I started to invest 30,000JPY/month for my retirement or backup money and have done it for a year.

It had a dip and I was losing money on August, 2024. But itwent back up quickly and I'm at a  50,000JPY profit, totalling 470,000JPY as of December, 2024.

It's really nothing much but if I could stick with this habit for a year, then I probably could do it for another year. Then 2 more years, then 10, 20. Then this money will compound.

But it all started from me deciding to put just 30,000JPY a month and sticking to it.

I make mistakes along the way

I still make mistakes along the way, and I actually make them all the time.

But the difference is how I view the mistake.

I embrace failure more, because it helps to me to be better. 

What's important is deciding what to do next.

If you can't think of a good solution, you can ask help from people around you.

You don't need to be embarrassed about the mistake. 

Be positive about it, and focus on improving so you can tell people you learned something.

Share what you learned. I enjoy life a lot more when my mindset changed towards failure.

The meditation session in Bangkok, and starting to read about Buddhism is what helped me to change my view towards failure ↓

Thanks for reading:)

Thanks for reading the content👋

In the blog I will share things I learned especially about finance and life advice. 

Japanese are relatively good savers when it comes to money, and I've been realizing it comes from good habits and mindsets that anyone can learn.

So, over time I'd like to share what I learned, and hope to learn from you, too.

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