You're going to fail.
Not maybe. Not if you're unlucky. You're absolutely going to fail at something during your growth journey. A hire that doesn't work out. A strategy that backfires. A market shift that catches you off guard. A client you lose. A decision you get wrong.
The question isn't whether failure will happen. The question is whether you'll let it stop you.
Most growing business owners don't have a framework for handling failure. So when it happens, it becomes something bigger than it is. It haunts them. It creates self-doubt. It makes them freeze up on the next decision. One failure becomes a story about their inability to scale. One wrong call becomes evidence that they're not cut out for this.
That's the trap. And it's completely avoidable if you know how to think about failure differently.
The Inevitable Reality
If you're growing, failure is baked in.
You're making decisions with incomplete information. You're entering markets you haven't been in before. You're experimenting with pricing, hiring, systems, positioning. You're scaling operations beyond what you've done at this level. You're trying things that haven't been proven yet.
In that environment, some percentage of your decisions are going to be wrong. Some of your experiments are going to fail. Some of your bets are not going to pay off.
That's not a sign that you're doing something wrong. That's a sign that you're actually trying to grow.
The safer path is to stay small, avoid risk, only do what's already proven. You won't fail. You also won't grow. And over time, you'll get passed by competitors who are willing to fail forward.
But here's what most business owners don't realise: the size and impact of your failure is directly related to how quickly you see it, admit it, and adjust.
A small failure caught early is a minor course correction. The same failure, hidden or denied until it's too late, becomes catastrophic.
So the question isn't how to avoid failure. It's how to see it coming, how to handle it when it arrives, and how to keep moving afterward without it derailing your entire journey.
The Difference Between Failure and Collapse
Not all failures are created equal.
Some failures are setbacks. You try something, it doesn't work, you course-correct. You lose a client because your pricing was too high. You adjust your pricing. You hire someone who doesn't fit. You let them go and hire again. You launch a product line that doesn't gain traction. You kill it and focus on what works. These are failures, but they're data. They teach you something and you move on.
Some failures are collapses. They're the result of ignoring multiple smaller failures. You've been making bad decisions for months but you haven't acknowledged it. Your margins are eroding but you're hiding it. Your key person is about to leave but you're in denial. Your product is losing relevance but you keep pushing it. Then suddenly, something breaks.
The difference is awareness. And honesty.
The businesses that navigate failure well are the ones that catch the small failures early and adjust quickly. They don't let problems compound. They don't hide from reality. They see what's not working and they change course before it becomes a crisis.
How to Practice Failure (Before It Happens)
This sounds counterintuitive, but you can actually prepare for failure before it arrives.
Frame decisions as experiments, not bets.
When you're scaling, you're going to test things. New pricing. New hires. New marketing channels. New processes. If you frame these as "bets", where success means you were right and failure means you were wrong, then failure becomes personal. You get attached. You defend the decision even when it's not working.
Instead, frame them as experiments. "We're going to try this pricing model for 90 days and see what happens." "We're going to hire this person in a trial period and see if they fit." "We're going to test this marketing channel for a month and measure the results."
Experiments can fail. That's the whole point. A failed experiment isn't a reflection on your judgment. It's data. It tells you something you didn't know before.
Build in regular checkpoints to look at what's not working.
Don't wait for a crisis to force you to look at reality. Schedule regular moments, monthly or quarterly, where you actually examine what's not working.
What's underperforming? What's costing more than expected? What's taking longer than planned? What's not gaining traction? Who's not working out? What's our customer feedback telling us about where we're missing the mark?
Look at it. Name it. Don't hide from it.
Most of the time, admitting something's not working early means you can course-correct with minimal damage. A hire that's not fitting in month two is a minor disruption. A hire that's not fitting in month twelve is a crisis you've been pretending doesn't exist.
Have a decision-making framework, not just gut feel.
Failure hurts less when you can point to the logic that led to the decision. If you hired someone and it didn't work out, did you follow your hiring process or did you just feel good about them? If you entered a market that didn't work, did you validate the opportunity or did you just assume it would work?
When you have a framework; we made this decision based on these assumptions, we tested these hypotheses, and here's what we learned, then failure is just information. You tried something based on sound reasoning, it didn't work, you learned something, you adjust.
When you just followed your gut and it goes wrong, it feels like failure is a reflection of your ability.
Talk through your decisions with someone you trust.
This is where having a thinking partner becomes invaluable. When you're about to make a major decision or when something is going wrong, think it through with someone who can challenge your assumptions.
"I'm thinking about doing X. Here's why I think it'll work."
Then they ask: "What could go wrong? What are you assuming that might not be true? What would you do if this didn't work out the way you expected?"
This doesn't prevent failure, but it does two things: first, it helps you make better decisions by testing your thinking. Second, it helps you prepare mentally for the possibility that it might not work. You're not blindsided because you've already thought through the downside.
What Actually Happens When You Practice This
I work with builders, tech founders, service business owners who are all navigating failure. The ones who scale well are the ones who've internalised this.
They're not afraid of decisions because they've framed them as experiments. They're not blindsided by bad hires because they're checking in regularly on whether someone is working out. They're not devastated when something doesn't work because they've thought through what they'd do if it happened.
Do they still fail? Absolutely. But the failures don't haunt them. The failures don't create the kind of self-doubt that freezes them on the next decision. The failures become part of the story of how they grew, not evidence that they can't.
One of my clients made a major pricing decision that initially looked wrong. His revenue dipped. He felt the panic. But because we'd framed it as an experiment and we were checking in regularly on the numbers, he didn't spiral into self-doubt. Instead, he said, "Okay, this assumption was wrong. Let's adjust." He tweaked the approach and within a quarter he was back on track with actually better long-term positioning.
That's not because he made a perfect decision. It's because he had a framework for handling the fact that it wasn't perfect.
What To Do This Week
If you're scaling and you haven't thought through how you'll handle failure, start here.
First, name one decision you're uncertain about. A hire you're making. A market you're entering. A pricing change. A new service line. Something where you're not 100% sure it'll work.
Second, frame it as an experiment. What are you actually testing? What metrics will tell you if it's working? What's the timeline? What would it take to know you need to adjust?
Third, think through the downside. If this fails, what happens? What's the cost? What would you do? What would you learn? Is that risk acceptable?
Fourth, talk through it with someone. A business coach, a mentor, a peer you trust. Not to convince you to do it or not do it. Just to think it through and pressure-test your assumptions.
Then make the decision. Not perfectly. Just clearly, based on sound reasoning, knowing what you're testing and what you'll do if it doesn't work.
That's how you navigate failure before it even arrives.
Ready to Build a Mindset That Scales?
If you're growing, you're going to face failure. The question is whether you have a framework for handling it, or whether each setback becomes a crisis that shakes your confidence.
This is what I focus on in the Mastering Business Expansion Program. It's not just about strategy and decision-making. It's about building the mindset and the practices that let you navigate the inevitable challenges of growth without them taking you down.
Here's what we work on together:
We build a framework for how you make decisions—so you can tell the difference between a setback and a collapse. We create checkpoints in your business—so you see what's not working early, before it becomes a crisis. We talk through your big decisions—so you pressure-test your assumptions before you commit. And we process the failures when they happen—so they become data points, not self-doubt.
Over time, this changes how you lead. You're more confident in decisions not because you always get them right, but because you have a system for handling it when you don't.
Your first session is free. We'll talk about where you're at in your growth journey, what challenges you're facing, and how I can help you navigate them with clarity instead of fear.
If you're ready to build the mindset and practices that let you scale without getting taken down by the inevitable failures, let's talk.