Planning for "Failure"

I am a big fan of LaLaLand and especially the song "City of Stars." The movie is about pursuing dreams, and Ryan Gossling sings "Is this the start of something wonderful and new? Or one more dream that I cannot make true?"

In most cases the answer to these questions isn't a definitive yes or no, but a maybe. Dreams move forward in fits and starts but you can soften the impact of disappointments by integrating two principals into any new project.

• Value all that you're taught- not just the home run win

• Don't bet the farm

The tech industry innovates and uses its failures as a key ingredient of forward momentum.Trial and failure is considered a necessary part of learning and expanding skill sets. Social media marketing has also has used this approach for years with A and B testing to learn and refine marketing campaigns. Both these industries see the educational value of failure, rather than viewing it as a sign of incompetence. "Failing forward" changes a miss into a mission to learn and grow. Recognize what was learned because you tried. How has your skill set or market knowledge increased? What did you learn that will help you move forward?

Bake mistakes into your budget and be sure you can absorb the cost of failure. Failure will sting less when it doesn't break the bank. Create small, affordable experiments that allow you to relax and learn. Resist big gambles on big payoffs and instead plan on a series of small tries that build up to a long-term win.

Sometimes, the cost isn't just dollars and cents, but personal pride. It's hard not to take failures personally and even feel shame when your efforts don't pay off. The newsletter that gets no likes, or the open house with no lookers is hard to face, but these public mistakes have a short half-life. Life is busy, and the failures that haunt you are rarely on anyone else's radar for long. 

Take chances and move into the unknown by trying out affordable, learning opportunities where misses are mere attempts to reach your dreams, not the measure of the value of your dream.