Our friend, Thomas Edison, once remarked -- rather famously! -- that he didn't fail to invent the lightbulb 1,000 times. No! He just discovered 1,000 ways that didn't work.
In this exercise, bare your soul.
1) Tell us about a time this past semester that you failed -- whether in this class, or outside of this class. Don't spare any details! It'd be even better if there was something you tried several times this semester, and failed each time.
I failed to do my second business concept as I shared in this blog. Everyone told me that "I am viewing this as if I were the buyer" and that I should address to another point of view. But I was blind and the results were: NO SALES! I began to change my business concept and trusted myself too much due to the prior business model that was more organized and enabled may sales. I am addressing the wrong people and I thought that everyone was going to buy my "ugly baby" as Dr. Prior mentioned before.
2) Tell us what you learned from it.
I learned that if it was so easy to sell a product or service online and make easy money, EVERYONE WOULD DO IT. It's not easy, every business has its limitations and capacities. Every industry has its own equations and E-commerce is not everything. You need to call people, make sales, negotiate, have multiple sources of income. Try many different alternatives hoping that 1% of your choices would work, therefore when you actually succeed, you might succeed in many different ways.
3) Reflect, in general, on what you think about failure. Failure is hard, isn't it? It's embarrassing, sure, but it also means that we have to change something about ourselves. Talk about how you handle failure (emotionally, behaviorally). Finally, talk about how this class has changed your perspective on failure -- are you more likely to take a risk now than you were just a few months ago?
Every bad step you take has two points of view, either you cry and whine, or you learn why not to take a step in that direction or in that area, and learn from your mistakes to apply them in future instances. For example, I have a very artistic mentality, I like to make or buy stuff that nobody has, therefore I feel unique. Yeah, I had like 10 sales online and 20 sales in person, but all of the people that like ordinary, mainstream designs, slogans, alternatives, etc did not buy from my store. You can have the best webpage in the world like this one: https://www.zara.com/us/. But if you don't call people to SEE YOU STORE, then none is going to know your "beautiful baby" exists. This class has shown me how to think as a buyer, and how to find opportunities, I thought that we need to make an awesome product, like that cooler that had a dishwasher; then everyone would like it. We need to sell what people want, not what we think they want. I lOVE taking risks, but ive spent like 400$ on marketing ads and have sold like 200$ in sales, this battle is not lost yet, but no business concept is easy or "perfect in your own way". I might fail and spend 1000$ on ads, but when I figure out the equation, I might hit the jackpot.
Hey Sebastian! I think this is a perfect example of entrepreneur ego, we think our first idea is the next big thing to happen to the world and that everyone will buy it and you'll be a billionaire. In reality making a product and taking it to market is a large amount of work and most times doesn't turn a profit, crashing and burning with all of your savings. I think you handled the situation well and were able to take a step back and listen to what people were saying. That being said everyone interprets instructions differently and is a harmless mistake that can be turned around.
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