Channel it into a positive, calculated direction

[zihadhosenjm90]

Channel it into a positive, calculated direction, and intelligently test your way into assumptions about your potential new business before jumping aboard and setting sail.

Nobody likes to fail, but the fear of failure is what’s keeping you from achieving your goals.

"Nobody likes to fail, but the fear of failure is what's keeping you from achieving your goals."
Click To Post on
I’ve failed plenty of times. Did I enjoy any of it? Of course not. But I learned a ton from every one of those experiences. They’ve been arguably better lessons than I’ve learned from my successes. What’s important is that I’m no longer afraid to land flat on my face with a new project, when it’s in the testing phase.

My first product, the iStash is a classic example of not truly validating a albania phone number database idea before spending a ton of time and money on bringing it to life. Here’s a picture, and you can read more about this colossal f* up here: How to Create a Product Nobody Wants and Lose $6,537.

The iStash: How to Not Lose $6537 and Create a Product Nobody Wants

Now, I use the marketing skills I’ve built to test the hell out of my business ideas before jumping in fully—and starting with this tutorial on how to create a content marketing strategy will pay you dividends in terms of validation.

When I give a new business idea a few thorough tests, gather a statistically significant amount of objective feedback, and the results strongly point toward “Holy shit, don’t do this one!” I by no means feel like a failure. I just learned early on that I need to either seriously alter my approach, or at the very worst, I just saved myself a ton of time, effort, and money.

"Actively abandon what doesn't work & focus on driving results to grow your business."
Click To Post on
Don’t be afraid to move onto the next business idea if early signs are all pointing towards a lack of demand for this current experiment.

And don’t forget the power of having a meaningful goal for building your business in the first place. I’ve always wanted to carve out more time in my life to pursue things like hiking—and as a result of growing this blog, I now have a new hiking blog side project called Hike with Ryan. I’ve been publishing content about blog topics like the best Yosemite trails, creative ideas of gifts for hikers, my picks for the best hiking boots, how to decide when to visit Yosemite and much more.

You should only start a business that can truly serve to benefit real people—so keep a close eye on how your early community is reacting to validation efforts.