Try something new, fail, learn.

When you take the initiative, when you are curious, and when you ask lots of questions, you’re invariably going to come up with a long list of things to try. And it’s highly likely that you’re not going to know much about or how to do many of them. Leadership is not about playing it safe, and learning is not about doing what you already know how to do. Sure, you could always play only to your strengths. You may even enjoy it. But where’s the growth or the opportunity for greatness in just doing that?

Try something new, fail, learn. Try something new, fail, learn. Try something new, fail, learn. This phrase should be one of your small business leadership mantras. Realise, as well, that you will learn that every so often you should try something entirely different, pursue another approach, or change pathways.

Chris Colman, the Wales Manager said after witnessing one of the greatest nights in British sporting history, [Wales had not even qualified for a major finals since the 1958 World Cup].

“Don’t be afraid to have dreams,” he told the BBC. “Because four years ago I was as far away from this as you can imagine and look what has happened.

If you work hard enough, and you are not afraid to dream, and you are not afraid to fail – everybody fails, I’ve had more failures than I have had success, but I am not afraid to fail.”

And as Harry Potter series author J. K. Rowling said, “It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default.”

You need to heed their lessons. History will not judge you harshly for your failures if you learn from them, but it will be unkind if you fail to try, stop swinging, or live too cautiously. Those who have left the most lasting legacies are those who have made mistakes, failed, but then tried again. That final try makes all the difference.

Try something new, fail, learn