Starting Over: Project Alchemy

Project Alchemy: Turning Failure into Success - Don't Give Up on Your Dream!

I have compiled a series of posts on various ways we can pick ourselves back up after trying out a new project or business, and not having it turn out the way we had planned.  Over just the past few years, I have seen so many people start a project, and if it didn't start moving in a way that they thought it would, or that they were 'told' it would (usually by someone promising them a boat load of money if they do things their way), then they would abandon ship on their own project or business.  

I abandoned my first blog many times, ultimately because I was swaying back and forth all of the time about what I really wanted it to be.  It started as a mom blog, but I encountered so many times that I was not feeling entirely comfortable posting about my children all the time.  So I left it alone, and over time decided that blogging was simply not 'for me'.  

Last year however, I fell in love with writing all over again, and began to incorporate affiliate marketing.  I agreed only to work with those partners that worked within integrity, and they had to be either assisting people with fueling their own creative fire, or helping the environment.  

Suddenly, I had passion for writing and blogging all over again, and could incorporate writing about the 'mommy stuff' whenever I felt like it.  The old adage says, "it's not how many times you fall down; it's how many times you get back up." and that is just as true on the Internet and in business as it is on the playing field.

I wouldn't normally reference 'famous' people, but of course we all strive for some level of great success, personal or otherwise, and these are some very good examples.  Rare is the successful business person who has not faced some kind of failure in their career.  

Behind every business success, from Steve Jobs to Oprah Winfrey to Donald Trump is a string of a not so successful events.  Steve Jobs has of the new tune. Oprah Winfrey got fired. Donald Trump went bankrupt and owed millions of dollars. What separates these people from becoming cautionary tales was their ability to bounce back from failure.

I have compiled a series of articles for you, and I will begin here with the first two parts, leading you through the remainder, up to a series of ten.  This is a transformational (alchemical) process that the most successful business people already know how to do and implement, and this is process is certainly something that anyone can implement for their own use.  

It doesn't need to be a secret.  My business, Urban Soul Alchemy, is where I work as a Creation Coach focusing on transformation and healing through movement and expressive arts therapy.  So as you can see, shifting things from the inside out to create something new and empowering is a huge passion of mine.

Whether your first business failed, your latest product launch bombed, or you on the brink of losing it all, there are lessons to be laying and ways to recover.  

Let's begin then, shall we?

Project Alchemy Part One: Give it Time

In our culture of overnight successes, American Idols selected during the course of a TV season, and miraculous weight loss of hundreds of pounds in a period of weeks, it's natural that we expect to see results fast. But often it's this very drive for instant success that results in our failures.

By pushing for success to occur immediately, if not sooner, we end up sabotaging our own success. We don't give our products time to take hold in the market before we pull the plug on them. We don't give ourselves time to develop new habits before we decide the latest fad simply doesn't work. We don't see our businesses and projects through the tough early days and growth stages before we decide it was all a big mistake. 

As a result, we let go of potential success before it has time to germinate. What was a great idea is never given time to fully develop. What is a great plan is never allowed to take hold in our habits and effect positive change on us and growth within us. We look around at what we've planted, and not seeing 'enough return' on our investment, we head off for greener pastures before we fully embrace the very one we are standing in.

The truth here is an obvious one (but easy to forget at times), and that is that long-lasting success takes time to develop. A strong business does not get created overnight.  It may appear that today's blockbuster superstar came on the scene just yesterday, but what we don't see is the years of practice and rehearsals, the sweat and the tears, and the copious amounts of time spent honing their craft.  Likewise, we need to get our ideas, projects, businesses and our dreams time to develop before we decide that they're failures.  The failure may in fact just be in your mind.

Before you give up on your latest plan, ask around for input from other people.  Research how long it took other companies like yours to turn a profit.  Ask other people who are getting in shape how long it took them before they change their eating and exercise habits.  

Read about successes in your field of interest and see what went into the development.  You will probably discover that it took much longer than you had anticipated, and much longer than you've given yourself.

Just as with a seed, any business or idea or even habit has a growth process.  There are stages that the project must go through before it can reach fruition.  Skipping any one of those stages, or trying to speed them up, simply doesn't work.  And of course, you need to have a passion for your project.

Remind yourself that success does not happen overnight, and what you see as a failure just might be a failure of not enough time granted to the depth of your process.

Project Alchemy Part Two: Look for Patterns

Success leaves clues, and failure does too. It's important to review your past failures and look for those clues, so you can dig in and figure out the mystery of success.

It may seem strange to mine your failures for keys to success, but it actually makes a lot of sense.  Just as Thomas Edison famously said that he didn't fail 999 times, but instead discovered 999 ways something wouldn't work, your own patterns of failure will lead you to success.

If you go in to see a relationship counselor, some of the first questions he or she will ask you will be about your past relationships, and why you feel they failed.  A wise counselor knows that the patterns you've developed and used previously often carry into the present.  

Discovering those patterns, and bringing attention to them, can not only help you see where you've gone wrong before, but also help you avoid similar problems in the future.

You can do this on your own as well.  If you're trying to discover why your latest business failed, go back and look over all your work experiences. What did your past business failures have in common? Were they all in the same industry?  

Did they all have the same business structure?  Were you working with the same partner?  Did you hire similar people?  Did you try to do it all yourself?  Did you invest tons of money, or very little? These things may not seem to have anything in common, but they really do.

Tracing patterns and similarities can help point to reasons for failure and reasons for success.

The same goes to for your personal life as well.  Are you having trouble maintaining relationships with friends or romantic partners?  Trace where the problems are occurring.  Do you always choose "the bad boy?"  

Do you go strong at the beginning but then hold back your interests and affections, saying you're too busy?  Do you smother friends and partners with attention and time, feeling insecure when they don't return your affections?

It may be helpful to bring in an objective person to assist you during this process.  A business coach or a counselor as mentioned above can be extremely helpful.  Having someone who knows you, but who isn't intimately connected to you, can help discover your patterns.  Not only are they trained to ask the right questions, they're also experienced enough to know many of the common pitfalls.

You may think that you want your failures to be over and done with, never to see the light of day again, and bury them with the proverbial hatchet.  But that's short-term thinking.  It's important to review what went 'wrong' so you can come back to it and transform it in the future.

To continue reading through this series, let's carry on to Part Three; Find the Reasons Why.