Ryan Levesque, creator of the ASK Method, is not afraid to admit that before he became the known public figure he is today; before the ASK Method even had its name, he had to deal with failure.
He decided to use his failures to do better and get better results in the future, and not let failure or the idea of failure knock him down or keep him from trying. Now, Ryan keeps two things in mind when he has to deal with failure in his business.
Ryan’s guide to failure
His first tool to deal with failure is to learn from his mistakes. To do this, Ryan says you must reflect on what went wrong so that the same issues do not occur in the future. To make sure he always reflects on a failure, Ryan implemented processes, such as the Launch Debrief, into his business.
The Launch Debrief is used to allow the team to analyse a launch and look at what went wrong instead of only looking at what went right. Each Launch Debrief should be detailed enough so that you would be able to look at it and immediately see what happened and why.
Launch Debriefs do not only have to be on your own businesses projects or launches. Analysing a competitor’s product or service launch can prevent your business from making the same or similar mistakes in the future. The whole process helps give your team insight and motivation to improve the next launch.
Secondly, you should not take failure as a personal blow. Ryan acknowledges that failure can hurt, but you can not let it deter you.
Ryan says failure is not personal because it is not as if failure is a person that picks you out of a crowd and decides to target you, it is only the result of actions or inactions. Failure is impartial, which is an advantage for business owners as it can be used as a good sound board or measuring stick. All failures should be used as a test on which to try out and build better products.
He believes that no one built anything worthwhile without having to go through failure, and it is through these failures that something is built that you can really be proud of. His final advice is not to dwell on failure as in a few months or in a year from that failure, you will not be making the same mistakes and you will only be better and stronger for it.