“Fail fast, fail forward” is not a new concept, but it’s something that was introduced to me a few months ago. The idea behind it is that you have to fail frequently in order to continue to move forward and that you move forward regardless. While I agree with this to some degree, I think that some things might be holding you in failure mode. You might not be looking at what’s going on in the right way, and this could prevent you from succeeding.
I don’t think that expecting to fail forward and fail fast is a good mindset to have.
I believe that many people who operate from this point of view may have a preconceived notion that it’s okay and expected to fail. I don’t believe in failure itself because there is always a lot for us to learn. When you think with this failing forward attitude, you might end up going to the extreme and not attracting the right thing. If we look at the definition of failure, it is simply the lack of success.
When we expect to have a lack of success, we are obviously not going to attract success in return. It’s not uplifting or positive to have these negative expectations. So for me, I don’t think this idea aligns with my expectations and how I like to run things for myself. I expect to rock at things, and you should, too! Why wouldn’t you?
Instead of talking about failure and expecting it, I highly recommend starting to set benchmarks and specific goals that you can hit when it comes to your launch or campaign.
There are three specific goals you should aim to have, especially when it comes to setting monetary goals. It’s much more beneficial to set goals for yourself rather than assume one of two outcomes - success or failure. This type of expectation is black and white, and life is not black and white. We are always in a gray area, so to speak.
So, what are the three goals you can set for yourself when it comes to financial objectives, possibly list growth, and more? Well, to start, you need to determine your “low-end” goal. This goal is typically something that is not a big deal, and you’re confident in your overall ability to achieve it. Next, you need to determine your “regular” goal - the primary goal that you’re trying to reach. It’s going to be a little bit of a stretch, but you know that you can still make it happen.
The last goal you will set is your “stretch” goal. This is the goal that might make you uncomfortable but is not impossible to accomplish.
I like to set these three goals whenever I’m beginning a launch, campaign, telesummit, etc. For example, I determine the minimum amount of people that I want to enroll or sign up, and then I move onto my actual goal and stretch goal. This process helps me realize when I truly need to push myself. If I’m having trouble with the low-end goal, then it’s time to investigate what’s going on.
Rather than feeling defeated, I like to determine a possible strategy to achieve my goals.
Another great area to focus on is finding other things to measure and test during the campaign process. What is it that you would like to learn about your audience during this run? For example, I was running a launch for my first mastermind back in 2016, and it was a bit of an experiment. Many people would consider this a fail forward, fail fast scenario, but I prefer not to have expectations of failure.
I prefer to expect success regardless of what happens, but I’m going to be sure to set low, regular, and stretch goals for myself. If things don’t end up in a way that I find favorable, I consider other areas that I can test and what that outcome may be. Something that was very different for me with this particular launch was that it was the longest program I had ever run. It was all brand new to me, and I didn’t know how it was going to work out. This program was also the most expensive one I had done in a group format.
My goal was to get very specific types of people into this program. It wasn’t for newbies, and it was more for people that wanted to grow their business versus start one. There were a lot of new things that I was doing, so the whole process was an experiment in itself. But, I didn’t set out to fail - I didn’t set out to expect a lack of success.
I expected to succeed regardless of the outcome; whether I hit my low goal or my stretch goal.
There were different reasons for hitting each particular goal. As I was going through the strategy and the launch, I was staying very clear about these reasons. If I was putting out a webinar or a three-part video series, how was my audience responding? Were they signing up, how eagerly were they signing up, and how often were they signing up for a phone call or filling out applications?
I began looking at the objections I was hearing and gaining an awareness of what was going on during the campaign. In the end, I did not hit my regular goal. I hit my low-end goal, and the launch didn’t go as I had hoped it would. But, I don’t necessarily feel as though I failed. If I had that fail forward mentality, I would’ve been down on myself and felt disappointed.
It doesn’t feel very uplifting or conducive to move forward when you’re failing.
So why not just expect success? When you’re confident in your background and experience, even if the success is low you, should still celebrate it. Then you can continue moving forward in the learning process and make the next campaign even better. This way, there’s no real failure, your ego is not going to take a hit, and you don’t have to feel discouraged.
If all else fails, still aim to hit your low-end goal. If that doesn’t work out, at least you learned something and tested out some methods that you can improve the next time around. That’s really what marketing and business are all about - experimenting and trying new things. You don’t have control over your market, and you don’t always know how things are going to work out.
The best thing you can do is keep a positive mind set, get out there, and do your best. Keep a diligent eye on how you’re showing up, what others are saying, and how everything is working. Be sure to analyze from the technical strategy side, then let some faith in, as well. Even if you don’t meet your lowest goal, you can still focus on more than the one metric of failure or success.
