It’s not ok to fail

F**k that.

I fully appreciate the notion of not taking failure as a negative emotion and I have practiced that many a times. Failure happens and there is so much that you learn from it and almost every failure is a gain, not a loss. So telling yourself “it’s ok to fail” when you fail, is one thing.

What bothers me is whenever I see a Startup or even any sort of initiative that is driven with the safety net of “it’s ok to fail”. This I feel sets you in the wrong direction all-together. If you are being scientific about how you think (not emotional) you can 100% of the time plan meticulously to achieve the set goals. Yes, it is true that no one plans exclusively to fail. But the notion of “fail fast” and the likes, I feel sets one to not look forward to the best way of make things work.

Startups see failures everyday. Coming back from each failure is what makes it a startup. Change, pivot, rethink or do whatever you have to turn things around. But most importantly plan, and plan well. Sh*t happens, but then if you had thought about that sh*t that can happen, you would have also thought about a way to mitigate it. Planning carefully, rationally, scientifically will always take you a long way. Not that you won’t fail but you would have given it the fight it deserves.

Failure is when you give up. It’s not bad to give up. In fact you are only smart if you give up when the right time comes. But before you give up, make sure you did plan well, execute well and gave it the best fight you can!