079 Why is failure so common in business?

Welcome to the Fail Forward podcast. In this episode I talk about failure.    As my podcast name suggests, this topic forms the building blocks to my content. It’s clearly close to my heart, I think the reason for that is because its so closely connected to business.    All you ever hear is, “80% of businesses fail in the first five years”, or “1 in 5 businesses fail in their first year”. There seems to be a new statistic every week!   I take the view that this is due to a fundamental issue with the way society perceives failure.    There’s no doubting its a negative word.    In school children are taught that they’ve failed if they don’t pass their exams. In 2023, 32% of 16 year olds failed their GCSEs. Take a second to imagine what that installs in young people’s minds at an early age.    One of the biggest things we should be teaching our children is that its OK to fail because it is a part of learning.   I wonder how many young people are left with a negative mindset when they leave school. They begin to let failure define them, rather than view it as something to learn from.   In this episode I explain that learning from multiple failures always becomes a positive. Not learning from them will compound into something catastrophic, such as a failed business.    I invite you to have a listen and challenge what we’re conditioned to believe about failure.    If you’re enjoying the Fail Forward podcasts, follow me on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok or LinkedIn for all the latest on my mission to help business owners Fail Forward.    Facebook https://www.facebook.com/failforwardhenri LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/henri-ghijben-539132101/ TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@failforward12 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/henrighijben/  

Om Podcasten

Failure is only negative if you don’t learn from it Fail Forward is the weekly podcast hosted by entrepreneur and family man Henri Ghijben. In each episode you’ll hear from Henri and guests as they share real-life experiences of positives born from failure, reflections on the lessons learned from ‘losing it all, and what fuels Henri’s desire to help others overcome personal and business challenges in order to create the lives they want to live. Who is Henri Ghijben? Growing up in Bury St Edmunds, Henri’s first memorable experience of failure left him with the lasting ability to never get lost. It proved to be the first of many times Henri would fail forward. But it wasn’t until he faced losing his home, business and possibly even his family, that he realised the truth. Failure is only negative if you don’t learn from it. Against the odds, Henri has rebuilt from rock bottom. He’s now on a mission to help others avoid making the same mistakes he did, to help those facing failure see that there is a way back and that by failing forward they can enjoy success again. Ever thankful for the love and support of his family, the loyalty of his team and the help of business owners who helped him when the chips were down, Henri now lives in Southampton where he runs HRG Tree Surgeons, has growing property management and investment businesses and runs mentoring programmes for business owners, entrepreneurs and directors who are on their own growth journeys.