Failure is not permanent

Time for some oldskool Athony Robinson Tsjakaaaa Yes We Can motivational stuff with a catchy title from Donald T. Time for some self-reflection, show the vulnerable side of myself, you know, to inspire co-entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs-to-be. Todays topic: success and above all FAILURE and MISFORTUNE. So why talk about failure if this is supposed to be a motivational post? Well, failure and setbacks are INEVITABLE in life, I know, been there, done that and sure it will happen again.

Though I haven't reached all the goals I've set for myself, I consider myself successful, I run a so far fairly successful or at least really promising company, I have a healthy, funny and sweet daughter, a lovely girlfriend and I have enough money to have a decent life. Actually, living in Indonesia and being confronted with poverty and seeing kids in situations without a lot of hope for the future made me much more grateful for my live and less selfish. I might say that in Indonesia I learned about sharing and how full-filling that can be.

But I gotta confess, both in my personal life and in business I had my share of failures and setbacks. Before I moved to Indonesia I had several companies of which the last went belly-up, bankrupt, and I can tell you in Holland that's no fun. It didn't really hurt me financially but you'd be amazed how people change in the way they treat you, friends who start avoiding you or all of a sudden show a complete different side. But what hurt me the most was that I wasn't able to find a healthy balance between my private life and my business which resulted in my ex-wife divorcing me at the same time my company went bankrupt. Now I can blame people, situations and circumstances but in the end I'm in charge and responsible for my own life and experienced many failures.

So I went through a really shitty period and not being able to see my daughter everyday anymore was by far the hardest. It's a cliche but everything that doesn't kill you only makes you stronger. You learn from your mistakes, set new goals and keep trying to reach them. How weird it might sound, you should embrace failure, prepare to fail rather than fear failure because it's inevitable but not permanent. Accept failure as a part of life and focus on the positive, focus on solutions.

I'm fortunate and really enjoying to work in Indonesia where the Internet business a starting to take off with many young ambitious startup entrepreneurs. Guys, RESPECT, for not only having ideas, ambitions and dreams but above all for the guts to pursue your dreams. Realize that only a small percentage of startups will in the end succeed but if your business fails, if you fall, just get up again and start over, FAILURE IS NOT PERMANENT!

The following video is not about failure, but about misfortune, courage and perseverance and puts everything in perspective. See how Nick Vujicic, a man without arms and legs deals with his misfortune, how he bounces back and how he focusses on solutions. For me people like Nick are the ultimate inspiration, whenever I feel sorry for myself I think about him and realize that my problems are just really really small ones.

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