When we embark on a business, many of us do so with runaway success stories in mind. We’re talking your Mark Zuckerberg’s and your Elon Musk’s, who seemed to just step into success with such ease. 

In reality, though, this is an unrealistic expectation. Far more common are entrepreneurs who have to face false starts and multiple enterprises before they truly get into the swing of business. 

This needn’t even be a bad thing, as can be seen from figures like Australian entrepreneur Phillip Kingston who has now founded four organisations and gone from strength to strength as he’s done so. Or, how about Kathryn Minshew, who lost everything on a previous enterprise before founding The Muse?

On the flip side, however, are those who fail and don’t bounce back, allowing themselves to fade into the business slipstream without having any impact at all. To avoid joining them, ask yourself – what differentiates these two sets of entrepreneurs?

Taking the time to heal

Often, entrepreneurs who fail to rise again simply jump back in too soon. After all, money is at stake, and it can sometimes seem like a scrabble to recovery is the best way forward, but that’s simply not true. Rather, the period after you leave your first enterprise should be a time of reflection and healing, both for yourself and your bank balance. Look at Christina Wallace, now vice president of Startup Institute, who famously spent three weeks in bed after the failure of her first business foray, Quincy Apparel. By allowing you to draw a line in the sand, taking a similar period out is guaranteed to help you embrace your next project with more focus, and more funds.

Willingness to learn

While they can be tough to take, business failures hold a load of lessons about what not to do next time. Unfortunately, some entrepreneurs don’t realize this and go on to make the same mistakes, typically with the same outcomes. By comparison, an entrepreneur on the path to success will return to the classroom of their failures and use those lessons to streamline their business moving forward. You may find it especially useful to hire a business coach at this stage, who can help you to both pinpoint and understand those lessons on a deeper level.

The confidence to take more risks

For all the learning and reflection, there always comes a time when you have to get back on the horse and take more of the risks that unravelled you in the first place. After big losses, many entrepreneurs can’t face that, hence why their eternal failure. But, by taking what you’ve learnt, you should find that you get back in the saddle and ride the business race at last.

Failing to get a business idea to the stage you dreamt of can be crippling, but it’s not a death sentence. In fact, if you follow these tips, you might just find that those setbacks are what help you to become the entrepreneur you were always meant to be.