What "failure" taught you the most? 💪

[isabelle]

Hey Seller Community! This week, we're asking you to reflect on...

What "failure" taught you the most?

*This can be in your work, or personal life! Looking forward to reading and learning from your replies. 

[Wendycotton]

Haha! Great topic.
One "failure" that taught me just happened. 
Whilst in "edit mode", I was fooling around with changing titles on individual products. When I would "publish", the change was reflected online but not in edit mode. Kept fooling around; finally tried "refreshing" the edit page in question....and voilà. 
The change in title showed. 😂
Sometimes the simplest things work best. 

[TCSlaguna]

Not having enough inventory, not displaying products well. - Store redesign solved this.

Not having statistics on what items sell best. - Square solved this. 

[Hailey]

When i was in my 1st year of university, a few of my friends and I decided to enrol in Geology 101 - online/remote as an easy elective. A "bird" course.  We thought we could pass the 100 multiple choice question midterm without cracking (or purchasing) a textbook. We all failed the midterm miserably and learned VERY quickly to not judge courses/tasks/jobs as "easy" or "hard" until we know what we are in for LOL 

[AdamB]

So you got off to a rocky start in the class?

[Hailey]

LOL 👏👏👏  

[pessosices]

It definitely sounds like it was a grounding experience.

[Hailey]

I see we have some comedians in the house 😉

[JUYBoutique20]

OMG...I think we've all done that.  I've taken a couple of courses just because I thought they would be easy, Nope....I had to work harder in those "easy" classes than my regular ones...

[Hailey]

Such an oh so humbling experience, isnt it hahaha

[JUYBoutique20]

Definitely 😆

[Aislinn]

Failure taught me to take care not to make the same mistakes twice, thinking it will be different this time. It won't be!

[AdamB]

There's no one specific example, but through many failures I have learned to think twice before communicating. Or as the saying goes, measure twice, cut once.

[JUYBoutique20]

My mom use to say that all the time.  I use it with everything whether I'm hanging pics, cooking, etc.

[Xotomi]

Communication can solve problems, so long as everyone is onboard with the proper terminology. I learned that just because someone is my boss, they may have absolutely no idea what they are talking about. I was taught the business terminology by the administrator. File names reflected those terms I learned. My immediate boss was under the administrator. In speaking to me one day, she mixed two separate terms and asked for their completion. I hailed her for creating a new process which would serve the company better and simplify a necessary task. She handed me her work which she began, to complete it. I found occasional errors in it. I corrected those errors based off exactly what she requested of me. She was impossible to communicate with about the issue. I generated what she asked for, and in her insistence that I was wrong in my work, I learned she simply referred to a process we already used in the wrong terms. She even refused to accept that we already have what she asked for. While the administrator was off work, my boss fired me. I found her absolutely impossible a human being, so I did not try to keep that job. I was still in my probation phase anyhow. I later heard from another employee that my boss wasn't authorized to fire me. She no doubt advocated to the administrator for her own backwards reasoning against retaining me for the position. The administrator was overwhelmed and needed her onboard. I was just one person in a long line of people who never got hired on to work under that particular boss. Her inability to pass off a portion of the workload without micromanaging employees, caused her to remain without an assistant and overwhelmed in the workplace. Had the process been implemented which she addressed in her backwards terminology, she would have faced a promotion for sure. Sadly she had very little clue about what she was actually saying. 

[DrAmeenaAli]

...that wasnt it! 

[JUYBoutique20]

I don't call any of my antic's failures.  I call them improvement areas 😂😂😂.  I goaled myself and the hubby to completely clean/declutter/organize the garage.  I wanted to make it a fun time, so I put on music and fixed some drinks.  Two hours in we had the grill going and not one completed area of the garage.  Improvement area in this situation...leave the hubby inside until I get at least one area completed and have more drinks available 🤣🤣🤣.

[Dionnecarter73]

It taught me when I get knock down get myself up and try again

[specialtiesgame]

Not a failure as much as a learning experience.  A few years into having our store, we had a sales tax audit.  We thought we had been doing everything right, and keeping good records, but the auditor dinged us on many things, and it cost us a few thousand that we couldn't afford at the time.  We learned to ALWAYS get proper tax exempt documentation, and to always separate items purchased for resale from those purchased for store use.  Also, never purchase items for personal use tax exempt (like from Sam's Club or Costco)

[Katie_Jane]

Anytime I didn't listen to my gut instinct it cost me. Literally. A lot of people can tell you what they think you should do regarding your business but at the end of the day it's your call. So if something doesn't sit right, don't move forward. In the urgency I thought I had to make decisions I made a few wrong ones. It's ok to make mistakes. It's ok to fail. The most important part is to get back up and keep going. 

[MudFire_Dex]

There is so much fodder here - I lost my first business due to a lack of understanding of inventory flow and investing too much too fast in inventory that I discounted too much and after 6 years of a brutal cycle of living penny to penny - we broke our lease, had an emotional clearance sale and moved on. Fortunately, I had purchased my second business before the demise of the first and we were able to make a pretty seamless transition. But, definitely learned that it is ok to keep learning - I learn every day!