Find The Lesson And Move On

Today’s article is more of a business vs. networking lesson but important nonetheless… I’d love to hear your feedback and stories as I know many of you have had to find the lesson and… move on.  Enjoy!

When I was a newbie entrepreneur I received some very wise advice from a mentor which was this:

“Gina, you’re in a leadership role now and that means that you’ll need to grow some thicker skin. Some people will love what you do even when you screw up…and you WILL screw up. Others will be indifferent and some will dislike everything you do no matter how hard you try. Don’t take it personally. When things go wrong, look for the lesson and move on.”

My response at the time was a deer-in-the-headlights stare… blink… blink…!!  That one went way over my head at the time.  I mean seriously… who wouldn’t like me and what I do and I certainly didn’t plan to mess up any time soon!

The message started to become clearer the day I received my first taste of negative feedback… I had unknowingly disappointed a customer, and I mean really disappointed them. They were not going to let me live it down.

Worst of all, I was blind-sided (really, I was just blind!)… I had no idea they weren’t happy until that very moment!

Being inexperienced, my initial reaction was to take it personally. Everyone was supposed to like me – right?  I couldn’t understand what had gone wrong.  What am I going to do?  I’m such a screw up… spin, spin, spin some more…

Wow… did I have a lot to learn

Over the years, I’ve made mistakes in business and in life. We certainly don’t intend to mess up, but to err is human, right?  Well, not in everyone’s books unfortunately but that’s okay. It ‘IS’ okay to make mistakes and to fail as long as you’re always adjusting your course as a result. You must fail forward so that you are always learning and growing and doing better.

It does still amaze me though how a random negative comment or a moment of error can throw me completely off course and into a rant of self criticism!  The difference today is that I can recover from it immediately and you can too!

If and when it happens to you, here’s some tried and true advice to get you back on track quickly!

The first thing you must always ask yourself is:

What are the facts here? Is what they are saying true? (“They” meaning the person you received a complaint or criticism from and, your very own inner voice)

Based on your answer to this first question consider the following…

A.     If it is true… Accept it. It is what it is. It is in the past and cannot be altered. Set an intention to learn from it and ask yourself “What can I do to make up for it? “What can I do to ensure it doesn’t happen again?”

B.     If it is not true… forget about it and re-focus on the many positive comments you’ve received.  The positive always outweighs the negative.

Everyone has bad days in business (and life).  Everyone makes mistakes. Unhappy customers, miscommunications and errors can and will happen.  They’re not fun at the time, that’s for sure, but don’t be so hard on yourself… its okay.

The key is to do the very best you can from the start; to acknowledge mistakes that occur and to always fail forward by finding the lesson within that enables you to do better in the future.  Refocus on the positive as quickly as you can and think about developing thicker skin for tomorrow.

To your success!

Gina Bell is a multi-passionate entrepreneur, successful coach and author, President and CEO of Gina Bell, Inc. a company devoted to teaching multi-passionate entrepreneurs how to create fun, fame and good fortune online doing ALL that they love to do! Gina is also Founder and President of the International Association of Women in Business Online {IAWBO} as well as the Networking Masters International and JV Mavens Partner and Prosper Network to name a few of her companies and projects. Learn more at http://www.GinaBellinc.com