Adidas Wilson's Blog, page 151
May 11, 2017
HOW TO GET BUSINESS CREDIT FOR YOUR NEW LLC
Now that you’ve formed your LLC, you’ll probably want to establish business credit for your company. It’s crucial for you to know the difference between true “business credit” and business loans that you’re personally liable on.
Not All Credit is the Same
First, once you form your LLC, it will recieve all kinds of solicitations for credit cards for your business. When I formed an LLC a few years ago, within a few weeks I had an offer for a Quicken Business credit card in my mailbox. I don’t even know if I had opened a bank account for the business yet.
This credit card, however, was not business credit. If you read the fine print carefully you will find that you are personally liable on this credit card. Meaning, that if the company doesn’t pay the bill, then you will have to.
This is not true business credit.
True business credit is a loan, line of credit, credit card, etc. to which you owe no personal liability. If your company can’t pay, then the creditor is out of luck and you are off the hook.
Needless to say, business credit isn’t easy to get. But it can be done.
Five Steps to Building Business Credit
What you need to do is build a credit history for your business just like you did for yourself, personally. Check out these five tips to establishing business credit:
Open a credit card in the business’s name. Yes, you will be personally liable on your first business credit card. It’s almost unheard of for a brand-new company to get a credit card without the owner personally signing and guaranteeing payment.
Only use the card for purchases you know the business can pay. For example, toner and paper for your printer and other office supplies. In other words, small purchases. Use it every month, because this will establish a consistent history. Always make the minimum payment on time (you’re trying to build a good credit history).
Get a D&B number and account. D&B (Dun and Bradstreet) is a essentially a credit reporting company for businesses. They’ll ask for a lot of data, some of which you need to give (like name and address), and some you don’t (detailed financial statements).
Pay all your suppliers on time. This is pretty self-explanatory. Don’t string suppliers out longer than agreed to. If the contract is 60 days, pay by day 60.
Make sure your suppliers report your good behavior to D&B. Most companies only go to D&B when their customers don’t pay (D&B does collections). Encourage them to report your good payment history as well.
Ask your bank for a credit card without a personal guarantee. If you have too small a bank balance, you probably won’t get one. However, if you have a decent bank balance and you are willing to accept a lower credit line, then you can get a card in the business’ name without a personal guarantee. This is the first taste of business credit, and it will only grow from here.
Source:
http://llc-made-easy.com/business-credit.html
Windows Story Remix is packing eye-popping pro skills in an amateur package
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could simply take your videos, photos and music and tell an application to turn those into a nice video presentation? With Windows Story Remix, that’s what Microsoft is trying to attempt. This new application, which will launch with the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update later this year, combines all of the new features in this upcoming version of Windows 10 into a simple to use, machine learning-based application that automatically creates professionally-looking videos for you.
A product like this always looks great in on-stage demos, of course, but if the final result is anything like what the company showed today, then it’s definitely worth a closer look.
After you give the application the videos and photos you want it to work with — and maybe a soundtrack, too — it sets off to build the video. In doing that, it looks for scenes with a lot of action or where people smile, for example. If there are multiple people in those videos, you can even decide who should be the “star” of the final cut. And if multiple people take videos of the same event from multiple angles, Story Remix will try to integrate all of those into a cohesive video. And all images and videos are automatically tagged, of course, so you can easily search for people or objects. All of that is, of course, powered by Microsoft’s AI capabilities.
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In the demo, those videos look great, of course, but in some ways, the fact that Microsoft has seemingly made it very easy to edit and customize these machine-built videos may just be the application’s biggest asset. If you want to change the font of your titles or make a clip a little bit longer, that’s easy to do. But that’s nothing special. Every other video app does that, too, and even Google Photos does some of this with it’s automatically created videos.
What makes Story Remix stand out is that it, for example, allows you to write on a video with your Surface Pen, then anchor that text to a person or object, and as the video pans, that text will stay right in place. You can even got a step further and do this with any 3D object you find on Remix 3D, which is tightly integrated with Story Remix. Say you want to turn a soccer ball into a fireball. You simply find a nice fireball in the Remix 3D library (and that fireball could even be part of a more complex Remix scene), anchor it to the ball, and you’re done. You can also anchor objects to the ground.
Using modern web technologies, users will be able to easily share their montages across the web.
Story Remix will launch with the Windows 10 Fall Creators update, which we expect to hit a computer near you around September.
Source:
Microsoft’s Windows Story Remix uses machine learning to make your videos look awesome
What is a credit report?
Most people have more than one credit report. Credit reporting companies, also known as credit bureaus or consumer reporting agencies, collect and store financial data about you that is submitted to them by creditors, such as lenders, credit card companies, and other financial companies. Creditors are not required to report to every credit reporting company.
Lenders use these reports to help them decide if they will loan you money, what interest rates they will offer you. Lenders also use your credit report to determine whether you continue to meet the terms of an existing credit account. Other businesses might use your credit reports to determine whether to offer you insurance; rent a house or apartment to you; provide you with cable TV, internet, utility, or cell phone service. If you agree to let an employer look at your credit report, it may also be used to make employment decisions about you.
Credit reports often contain the following information:
Personal information
Your name and any name you may have used in the past in connection with a credit account, including nicknames
Current and former addresses
Birth date
Social Security number
Phone numbers
Credit accounts
Current and historical credit accounts, including the type of account (mortgage, installment, revolving, etc.)
The credit limit or amount
Account balance
Account payment history
The date the account was opened and closed
The name of the creditor
Collection items
Public records
Liens
Foreclosures
Bankruptcies
Civil suits and judgments
A credit report may include information on overdue child support provided by a state or local child support agency or verified by any local, state, or federal government agency.
Source:
https://www.consumerfinance.gov/askcfpb/309/what-is-a-credit-report.html
Elon Musk’s Tesla starts taking orders for solar glass roof tiles; delivery due this year
Tesla has started taking orders for traditional-looking glass roof tiles that soak up solar power to generate electricity.
Installations are to start next month, beginning with California and gradually rolling out to other U.S. markets, Tesla said. Overseas markets will be added to the mix next year, said Elon Musk, Tesla’s billionaire CEO.
“I think it will be great,” Musk tweeted.
In a blog posting, Tesla said “the typical homeowner can expect to pay $21.85 per square foot” for the product it calls Solar Roof. That’s significantly more than the cost of a traditional asphalt roof, based on Consumer Reports’ estimates, but closer to competitive in price when the anticipated electric-bill savings are factored in.
For a 3,000-square-foot roof in the Seattle area, the estimated cost is $79,500, plus $7,000 for a Powerwall battery system. (The math works out to more than $21.85 per square foot because there’s a higher proportion of power-generating tiles.)
Anticipated savings include a $21,000 tax credit and $41,900 in reduced electricity bills. Net cost over 30 years: $23,600.
That’s close to Consumer Reports’ estimated cost of $20,000 for a 3,000-square-foot asphalt roof, although estimates for the Seattle area could be less.
To check the estimates for your house, try Tesla’s Solar Roof Calculator.
Solar Roof builds on the solar-panel installation business set up by SolarCity, which merged with the Tesla electric-car company last year. Musk had a significant interest in both ventures, and he has repeatedly touted the synergy that comes from integrating solar energy systems with Tesla’s Powerwall batteries and electric cars.
The roof tiles are due to be made on a pilot basis at Tesla’s factory in Fremont, Calif., and production is expected to ramp up in the months ahead at a new facility in Buffalo, N.Y. Installation will be performed by SolarCity, which is now a Tesla subsidiary.
“Black glass smooth and textured will be first,” Musk said in a follow-up tweet. “Tuscan and French Slate in about six months.”
Musk discussed the roof tile design, and the business model behind it, last month during a TED talk in Vancouver, B.C.:
“You can adjust the texture and the color to a very fine-grained level,and then there’s sort of micro-louvers in the glass, such that when you’re looking at the roof from street level or close to street level, all the tiles look the same whether there is a solar cell behind it or not.So you have an even color from the ground level. If you were to look at it from a helicopter, you would be actually able to look through and see that some of the glass tiles have a solar cell behind them and some do not. You can’t tell from street level. …
“A solar glass roof will be less than the cost of a normal roof plus the cost of electricity. So in other words, this will be economically a no-brainer, we think it will look great, and it will last. We thought about having the warranty be infinity, but then people thought, well, that might sound like we’re just talking rubbish, but actually this is toughened glass. Well after the house has collapsed and there’s nothing there, the glass tiles will still be there.”
Musk said that in most areas of the U.S., houses should have enough roof area to provide power for all of the household’s needs.
“If you, say, were to fast-forward to say 15 years from now, it will be unusual to have a roof that does not have solar,” he said.
The development of electricity-generating roof tiles is part of a dizzying array of technological initiatives that Musk has been juggling over the past few years.
Other initiatives include Tesla’s Model 3, an electric car designed for the mass market, and a soon-to-be-unveiled all-electric truck; SpaceX’s crew-capable Dragon capsule and super-sized Falcon Heavy rocket; the Hyperloop mass-transit concept; an effort to develop lower-cost tunnel boring equipment; and the Neuralink venture to implant wirelessly connected computer chips in human brains.
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Source:
https://www.geekwire.com/2017/elon-musk-tesla-solar-glass-roof/
Vermont Legislature becomes first in U.S. to vote to legalize recreational marijuana use
Vermont’s Legislature on Wednesday became the first in the country to vote to legalize the recreational use of marijuana.
The legislation, which passed the House by a 79-66 vote, would allow adults to possess and use small amounts of the drug beginning next year. The bill was identical to one passed last week by the Senate that also sets up a commission to study the best way to regulate marijuana.
The bill now heads to Republican Gov. Phil Scott, whose spokeswoman said he’s not philosophically opposed to legalizing marijuana but must be sure the bill answers certain public safety and health questions.
“He’ll review the bill when received to determine if those questions are addressed,” spokeswoman Rebecca Kelley said after the vote.
If Scott signs the legislation it will become law on July 1, 2018.
Under the legislation, small amounts of marijuana would be legal to possess and grow for anyone over age 21. Larger amounts would remain illegal.
A nine-member commission will develop a proposal to tax and regulate marijuana, and the proposal will be presented to lawmakers next year.
Before Vermont’s vote, eight states and the District of Columbia had legalized the recreational use of small amounts of marijuana. The vote by Vermont lawmakers, however, was the first to legalize marijuana separate from a voter initiative.
The hour-long debate before the vote featured impassioned comments by some lawmakers who felt legalizing marijuana would lead to increased substance abuse, car accidents and other unintended consequences.
“This is voting for trouble. We’ve got a lot of problems, and this is only going to make it worse,” said Rep. Ben Joseph, a Democrat from North Hero.
But opponents’ arguments were countered by others who said that marijuana use is already prevalent in Vermont and passing the law could give the state a say in its regulation, end the black market and possibly increase state revenue.
“What is changing is the landscape of our region,” said Rep. Ruqaiyah Morris, a Democrat from Bennington, whose home is less than 10 miles from Massachusetts, where retail marijuana sales are due to begin in mid-2018. “This is going to happen. We can either be pro-active and be part of this conversation and ensure we are thinking about all these things, including some sort of a mechanism to address them, or we can just take a wait-and-see approach and deal with it next year.”
Source:
Facebook downranks News Feed links to crappy sites smothered in ads
Facebook will bury links to low-quality websites and refuse to carry ads pointing to them in a News Feed algorithm change announced today. Facebook defines a “low-quality site” as one “containing little substantive content, and that is covered in disruptive, shocking or malicious ads.” This includes hosting pop-up and interstitial ads, adult ads or eye-catching but disgusting ads for products that fight fat or foot fungus.
The change could help Facebook fight fake news, as fakers are often financially motivated and blanket their false information articles in ads.
High-quality sites may see a slight boost in referral traffic, while crummy sites will see a decline as the update rolls out gradually over the coming months. Facebook tells me that the change will see it refuse an immaterial number of ad impressions that earned it negligible amounts of money, so it shouldn’t have a significant impact on Facebook’s revenue.
Facebook product manager for News Feed Greg Marra tells me Facebook made the decision based on surveys of users about what disturbed their News Feed experience. One pain point they commonly cited was links that push them to “misleading, sensational, spammy, or otherwise low-quality experiences . . .[including] sexual content, shocking content, and other things that are going to be really disruptive.”
Today’s change is important because if users don’t trust the content on the other side of the links and ads they see in News Feed, they’ll click them less. That could reduce Facebook’s advertising revenue and the power it derives from controlling referral traffic. Getting sent to a low-quality, shocking site from News Feed could also frustrate users and cause them to end their Facebook browsing session, depriving the social network of further ad views, engagement and content sharing.
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Facebook previously tried to reduce the prevalence of links to low-quality sites with a2014 News Feed update that suppressed sites that people came back to News Feed immediately after viewing.
To implement the update, Marra tells me Facebook “reviewed hundreds of thousands of webpages, identifying which ones have low-quality content.” It used this data to train an AI system to constantly scan new links shared in News Feed, looking for ones that match the low-quality site training data set. It then demotes these sites and blocks them from buying Facebook ads.
The parameters Facebook used to classify sites as low-quality include:
A disproportionate volume of ads relative to content. This includes advertisements, and not legal obligations such as cookie policies or logins to private content, such as paywalls.
Featuring sexually suggestive or shocking content. See relevant policies for Sensational Content and Adult Content.
Pages that contain malicious or deceptive ads which include Prohibited Content as defined in our policies.
Use of pop-up ads or interstitial ads, which disrupt the user experience.
One of the most prominent hosts of these types of ads is Forbes, which shows an annoying full-screen interstitial ad before you can read its articles. When specifically asked if Forbes would come under the gun, Marra diplomatically admitted “Interstitial popover ads are one of things people are telling us are disruptive.
If Facebook can keep people confident that the links they click lead to quality content, it could continue to be the homepage of the internet.
Source:
Facebook downranks News Feed links to crappy sites smothered in ads
10 Ways Mentally Strong People Build Powerful Mindsets
Some people call it grit. Others call it perseverance. Whatever name you give it, a strong mindset is a trait shared by the world’s best performers – whether they are entrepreneurs, leaders, musicians or athletes.
Yet a strong mindset is more than simply refusing to quit. True strength of mind comes from a combination of awareness, focus and resiliency. A strong mindset is what allows you to stay focused on your intentions, instead of negative thoughts. It’s what helps you understand that struggle is impermanent and won’t derail your success. It keeps you from making self-destructive decisions.
So how do you cultivate a mindset that rivals the strongest performers on earth? You learn and adopt the same habits they use every day. Here are ten things that remarkably successful people do to develop a powerful mindset of success.
They use the power of intention
I recently met Randy Jackson, former host of American Idol and prolific business leader in the music industry, at The Human Gathering conference in Los Angeles. He mentioned that artists like David Bowie and Madonna had a mindset that produced an insatiable belief in their future success. They acted as if their success and fame was as real as gravity, even before they had it.
This is a great example of how successful people use the power of intention to build belief systems around the things they want to create or experience. Then they make them real. You can learn to tap into this power by using this list of powerful mantras that help build a mindset of success.
They make time to think
Successful people are certainly busy, but that doesn’t mean they’re constantly hustling with their head down. They also understand the importance of reflection and introspection. They take time to examine their progress and give their minds the space needed to notice new ideas or opportunities.
They learn to deal with negative thoughts
The best performers are aware of the negative thoughts that derail most people and they know how to deal with them in a productive way. Instead of suppressing negativity, they accept that negative thoughts are simply thoughts with no inherent power. They don’t attach to them, and in doing so, are free to look at the same situation from a new angle. Finally, they replace the negative thought with a new one that serves them well.
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They don’t listen to the haters
When you play big, someone is bound to hate on your ideas or success. Winners do not give their power away by allowing hate and external judgment to affect their ambitions or self-confidence.
They meditate
Meditation aims to calm your mind so you can become aware of your thoughts and emotions. While the techniques and tools vary, a meditation practice helps you get to know yourself on a deeper level while also lowering your baseline of stress and anxiety. Top performers know that moments of stillness dissolve distractions and stress – leaving them with the clarity to flow in the direction they want to go.
They work with coaches
Even the most successful people hire coaches to help them stay focused, remain accountable to the process and hone their craft. They know that a coach is a key ingredient to pushing their minds and talents to the next level.
They are constantly learning
One trait shared by remarkably successful people is a dedication to reading and learning. Successful people are voracious readers. They know that learning is a key ingredient for a growth mindset. Here’s a list of great books for entrepreneurs.
They have clear goals
Successful people know what they want. They define their goals in specific terms and they write them down on paper. The process of writing them down makes them feel even more real. Also, many successful people use vision boards to keep their intentions in the forefront of their minds.
They exercise
We all know that exercise is good for us, yet that doesn’t mean we actually make it a priority. Remarkably successful people know the connection between a healthy brain and body and professional success. The path to greatness includes physical and emotional demands that are more manageable when your mind and body are strong and healthy.
They laugh
Everyone needs a release, and laughter releases endorphins, the brain’s “feel good” chemical, which enables us to let go of stress and negativity. People who laugh often are happier and more productive. Find time for laughter every day, even if it’s a quick video clip on YouTube.
When your mind is strong, you can handle the ups and downs of the entrepreneurial journey. When your mind is weak, you’re vulnerable to making bad decisions due to fatigue, fear and panic. Adopt these habits and build a powerful mindset that will lead to personal growth and professional success.
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Source:
https://www.inc.com/andrew-thomas/10-daily-habits-of-people-with-the-strongest-mindsets.html
Google just acquired one of the most successful VR game studios
Google announced today that it’s acquiring Owlchemy Labs, the VR-focused studio that created Job Simulator and Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality. Owlchemy will keep releasing VR games for multiple platforms, but with backing from Google — similar to Tilt Brush studio Skillman & Hackett, which Google acquired in 2015. “We have a slate of original games that we have in [the] production and prototyping phase, and we’re going to continue to do that,” says Owlchemy co-founder Alex Schwartz. “We’re very excited to continue to do that with the support of Google behind us.”
Owlchemy is known for developing games that closely mimic using real hands, and a blog post assures readers that it’s “continuing to focus on hand interactions and high quality user experiences, like with Job Simulator.” Schwartz says that full-motion hand tracking is “kind of our key factor.” That stands in contrast to Google’s current VR platform, Daydream — which uses a remote with limited motion controls. “We have a pretty big vision” for virtual and augmented reality, says Google VR and AR engineering director Relja Markovic. “Daydream’s a great product — I love my Daydream. But there will be many, many things that come after that.”
It’s difficult to read too much into what this means, and Markovic points out that Google has released products purely for non-Google headsets, like Tilt Brush and Google Earth. But the acquisition does feel like it’s pointing toward something beyond the current version of Daydream. “If you think about where VR and AR are going, especially AR and Tango, and other ways of interacting with your environments, I don’t think we’re done exploring how you interact with controls in your hand. That’s not saying ‘Oh, and therefore we’re going to bring Job Sim to Daydream,’” he says. “But there’s a lot of learning to still be done in that space as well.”
Schwartz and Markovic say Owlchemy will keep engaging with the larger VR development community, sharing knowledge and best practices — as well as potentially contributing to Google’s experimental Daydream Labs program.
Owlchemy didn’t start as a VR studio — in 2011, it released the controversial satirical gameSmuggle Truck, followed by the fluffy-animal-themed update Snuggle Truck. But it was one of the first studios to work with the initial Oculus Rift development kit in 2013, and Job Simulator was a launch title for the PlayStation VR, HTC Vive, and Oculus Touch motion controllers. In the fairly small and new world of VR gaming, it’s one of the industry’s major success stories; Job Simulator passed $3 million in sales at the start of 2017.
Google will probably say more about virtual reality at its I/O developer conference next week, although there have been few rumors about what we might see, and Schwartz says Owlchemy isn’t imminently announcing any new projects. But the acquisition suggests that at the very least, Google is still working on its push to develop more VR content, and that in contrast to Facebook-owned company Oculus — which recently closed its VR film studio in order to fund external projects — it’s comfortable keeping talent in-house.
Source:
May 10, 2017
Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Microsoft. It’s complicated
Looking back at Steve Jobs’ tenure at Apple, it’s impossible to separate the role Microsoft and Bill Gates played. The companies helped pioneer the industry and define an era. The two CEOs partnered at various times, competed all the time, and challenged one another in ways that helped shape the landscape of technology. It’s a complex relationship – which you can witness in this amusing video compilation of Steve Jobs best quotes about Microsoft.
During the development of the Macintosh in the early 80s, Microsoft was an important ally. Apple needed groundbreaking softwares for it’s upcoming platform and Microsoft was one of the few companies developing for it. It was a crucial phase for Apple.
The strength of their relationship could be witnessed at an Internal Apple Event in Hawai where Steve Jobs introduced the Macintosh to a few Apple VIPs. Bill Gates sugarcoated the Mac and Steve Jobs loved every moment of it.
Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were so close at the time that according to a Guardian article, they even double-dated occasionally.
But all good things must end.
Steve Jobs had this dream where Apple would dominate the computer business and Microsoft would own the application-side of that business. The OS would naturally also by controlled by Apple.
But Bill Gates wasn’t blind. He understood that the Graphical User Interface was the future of computing. He also knew that it would quickly make its DOS operating system irrelevant and threatens Microsoft to become (just) a software company dependent of Apple. Bill Gates had bigger plans.
For years, Microsoft had engineers secretly copying the Macintosh OS and working on its own version of a Graphical OS: Windows. Not long after the Internal Event in Hawaii, Steve Jobs learned the crushing news. Microsoft wanted to compete with Apple; Bill Gates deceived him.
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For the next 15 years, Apple would engage in a strange relationship with Microsoft. On one end, Microsoft was prying marketshare away from Apple, on the other, it was one of its biggest partner. Steve Jobs would soon leave Apple and create NeXT but would not succeed to make a dent in Microsoft’s dominance.
Along the way, Jobs often sparred with Microsoft, criticizing the company’s lack of creativity.
“The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste,” Jobs said in the 1996 public television documentary “Triumph of the Nerds.” “They have absolutely no taste. And I don’t mean that in a small way, I mean that in a big way, in the sense that they don’t think of original ideas, and they don’t bring much culture into their products.”
In a New York Times article that ran after the documentary aired, Jobs disclosed that he called Gates afterward to apologize. But only to a degree.
”I told him I believed every word of what I’d said but that I never should have said it in public,” Jobs told the Times. ”I wish him the best, I really do. I just think he and Microsoft are a bit narrow. He’d be a broader guy if he had dropped acid once or gone off to an ashram when he was younger.”
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But if Steve was still bitter about Bill, why would he keep a letter of Bill next to his bed during his last moments?
Though to say…
What both men really thought of each others or what really happened behind the curtain will probably never be known. You have to hope that these titans truly shared mutual respects and eventually found grounds to appreciate each others. Bill Gates seems to have:
Bill Gates statement at the passing of Steve Jobs
I’m truly saddened to learn of Steve Jobs’ death. Melinda and I extend our sincere condolences to his family and friends, and to everyone Steve has touched through his work.
Steve and I first met nearly 30 years ago, and have been colleagues, competitors and friends over the course of more than half our lives.
The world rarely sees someone who has had the profound impact Steve has had, the effects of which will be felt for many generations to come.
For those of us lucky enough to get to work with him, it’s been an insanely great honor. I will miss Steve immensely.
Bill Gates, 2011.
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Source:
https://everystevejobsvideo.com/steve-jobs-bill-gates-and-microsoft-its-complicated/
How to Prevent Failing From Staining Your Entrepreneurial Career
Most entrepreneurs fail. Some fail more than once. Some fail big before going on huge success. Moving through failure does not make you a bad entrepreneur. It actually gives you the tools to become better at business. Many people are tempted to look at their failures as a horrid stain on their professional lives when, in fact, they often serve as a strength. Here’s why.
Failure is everywhere.
There are endless stories about failure and what entrepreneurs did to overcome it. The front page of Entrepreneur.com is filled with the failures and successes of people like Tony Robbins or Elon Musk, and those posts get some of the biggest page view totals.
Musk is flirting with failure all the time. He has his share of doubters and critics who don’t think he’s going to succeed with his Gigafactory or Solar City for instance. People are still pretty skeptical SpaceX will ever really make it to Mars or that Musk will even deliver Tesla’s Model 3 shipments on time.
You don’t see often stories about people who failed, shied away from opportunity, then just crawled into a cave. The oft-cited, iconic lessons on failure from Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Edison and Walt Disney still hold true. One of the most famous authors known today started from a place of unemployment and depression –- Harry Potter creator, J.K. Rowling.
Who hasn’t had a poor interview, lost sale, negative review or missed opportunity? They can cause a range of reactions — even emotional or physical pain. Some people get a stomach ache and dive into a hole of self-pity and doubt. Others get defensive and look for every excuse to justify the loss. People who succeed in times of failure know how to view the situation, overcome their fears, and take back control.
The experience of failure changes your interpretation of the world. It can distort your perceptions, create conscious and subconscious feelings of negativity, and make your future seem unattainable. Only you can change your internal experience from fear and pessimism to optimism.
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Take control over failure to change your future.
Before trying to see a failure as a strength in the context of entrepreneurship, you need to conquer any negative inner monologue you’ve got going on. If you’re struggling to see the good in the face of failure, try these techniques to regain control:
Use psychology. People don’t need to struggle with clinical mental health issues to benefit from the principles of modern therapy. Explore various therapy models such as cognitive behavioral therapy to overcome underlying fears associated with failure and learn new ways to cope in the future.
Identify the reason for failure. Confront the cause of failure and learn from it. There are three main types of failure: preventable, unavoidable, and intelligent. Each arises from situational or human errors and the type can inform corrective actions in the future. Even if the failure you need to explain happened years ago, take time to dissect it today.
Be ready to tell the story. You can sweep some failures under the rug and no one will question you. As an entrepreneur, however, you may face questions about your past that you want to answer confidently and honestly. This may happen if you’re seeking investment or looking for people to help you build your company. Lay out what happened, identify the type of failure and its circumstances, and describe your response. I’ve interviewed dozens of entrepreneurs who have failed, and they typically say they’re more interested in how you respond to failure than the fact that you failed. If you took effective corrective action to soften the defeat or later picked yourself up to keep trying, you persevered. Perseverance is a trait integral to entrepreneurial success and people know it.
Understand that it doesn’t really matter much. It hurt a lot at the time, but the truth is, your little failure doesn’t matter much. Other people may not really look at it as a failure at this point anyway. Wear the darn thing like a badge of honor.
As I mentioned, failure is everywhere. Whether an economic downturn shut down your last business venture or you made a glaring mistake in a past job, you are not the person you were at the time you suffered through difficulties.
All that really matters is whether you picked yourself up and kept going. If you can be someone who perseveres, learns from mistakes, and moves forward, no failure will stand in the way of actual success in life. You know what they say; the real failure is the person who stops trying.
Source:
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/293943
