Most business coaches will tell you to ‘put your best foot forward’, ‘share your business highs’ and whatever happens ‘stay positive’. Just try scrolling through LinkedIn and you’ll see it’s a cringefest of boasting and willy waving. Rapturous utters of glee about promotions, awards, podcast features and speaking gigs. So many business owners wear a rictus grin of relentless happiness, “Everything is fine,” they scream! “Business is going wonderfully,” they shriek.
In a world of AI bots and filtered perfection, it’s all too easy to blur the lines of your business every day, and all too tempting to only share the sparkly bits. Because failure is weakness, right? Who would want to work with someone who admits to low moods? Who would want to invest in a business that shares grim times?
But over my years in business, I’ve found that there are often far more downs than ups and I think that if more of us admitted this – we’d be a lot better off. Sharing your failures is okay and here’s why.
1. It’s honest
I’ve written a gazillion brand guidelines in my time and one of the brand values/personalities most businesses want to ‘put out there’ is honesty. It’s hard to seem honest when you’re perpetually hiding your failed launches and sales flops. You know and I know it’s not true. The positive about sharing the slips is that when you share the successes it’s so much more believable.
2. It’s relatable
We’ve all heard the mantra, ‘people buy from people’ and the thing about people is they fluff up. While yes, I might be a digital marketing goddess, I have of course had my website fall over mid-launch, I have, of course, posted stupid things on socials that I regretted, and don’t get me started about that one time I fell flat on my face on stage at a conference. I can shove success statistics down your neck until we both gag but a simple post about a failure that causes a smile of ‘I’ve been there’ can have much more impact.
3. It’s freeing
There is nothing more exhausting than pretending to be something you’re not. For years I tried to pretend I was a happy, glossy-toothed, white-haired, pencil skirt-wearing business ‘chick’. When in truth I am a sardonic, pyjama-wearing business hobbit. By being open and honest about my reality, it means I can turn up as me every day.
Every post is on brand, every utterance matches. I’m not trying to keep track of my previous posts to ensure the story is consistent, because I am gloriously inconsistent.
This enables me to show up more, do more, be more.
4. You’ll succeed faster
As Edison says, “I have not failed, I have just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” Or if Einstein is more you jam, “Anyone who has never made a mistake has never learned anything new.”
Mistakes show growth. Failures facilitate change and learning.
Now, I’m not saying that every failure needs to be turned into a hero’s journey – e.g. “I was living in a bin, and then I did this, and look at me now.” Sometimes a failure can be just that.
Sharing your failures and explaining what you learned from them is powerful content that can genuinely help others.
Over the years I’ve found that my failure posts outperform my success posts hugely in terms of comments and connections. Because I’m willing to show my soft underbelly, my customers and peers relate to me more, and trust me more.
And in business, I believe that relationship-building and trust are more important than anything else.
I still win awards, I still have peer respect, and I still bring in the money, but I do so honestly, and that gives other business owners permission to be honest, too.
What do you think? Are you brave enough to share a failure or two?
