by OldManBurns

Created on: August 29, 2009

Generally in life, if you work hard and sensibly you will reap the harvest of your labour. This is true in business, and especially true of entrepreneurship. The public may look to the success stories of the 'Dragons Den' panel (BBC business reality show) and perceive these entrepreneurs as being lucky, or having some business flair denied to the rest of us. The reality is usually far more mundane and tedious. These stars of the business world have all succeeded through careful planning, hard work and perseverance. And more than one extremely wealthy self-made businessperson has failed miserably.

Causes of failure

Unfortunately, nothing in life is ever a definite given, and businesses often fail. Entrepreneurs are often cited as examples of people who make bad business managers. It is the process of starting a business from an idea that gets them excited. Often, the mundane execution of routine tasks gets neglected or handled badly. And this lack of understanding amongst entrepreneurs has caused many a failure over the years. Telecoms millionaire Peter Jones for example went bankrupt and lost everything. He slept in his business unit until he devised his comeback plan. He made a relatively common mistake that many businesses make when they start out. In his case he relied too heavily on one supplier. Some firms manage to get away with it for a while, others, like Jones' didn't. The point is that the man was not born with a preordained right to become immensely wealthy. He made it, lost it all and learned from his mistakes the hard way. He is a now lot more careful. And a lot more wealthy due to his stubborn perseverance.

Put your situation into perspective

Failure is a relative term. Peter Jones interprets his early business failure as feedback. We could learn much from the likes of Jones. Entrepreneurs should also take some pride in the fact that even if their start-up does fail; at least they attempted to become successful. It isn't everyone that actually goes out and forms their own business in the hope of improving their life. That fact alone puts them above most of the population in terms of business achievements. No businessman has a blemish-free career. How a person deals with a failure is what truly distinguishes them from their peers, and unfortunately, this is a lesson that can only be learned through experience.

Be brutally honest

'Dragons Den' is a wonderful learning resource for the would-be entrepreneur. The 'Dragons' dispense so many

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