MSNBC:
In the early 1980s, when my first major business failed, I thought I was the stupidest person in the world. Being flat broke and getting calls from creditors made me wish I had never wanted to be an entrepreneur. I even wanted my old job back.
But instead of condemning me for failing, my rich dad gave me one of life’s most important lessons: “You’re fortunate to have failed. You now have the opportunity to learn how to turn bad luck into good luck. If you can do that, you’ll have a life of more and more good luck.”
Here are three key points for turning bad luck into good luck:
1. Don’t blame. When my rich dad asked me what went wrong, the first thing I did was blame my partners and the economy. He said, “If you blame someone else, you’ll never learn from your mistake. If you blame, you give your power away.” Remember, there are no victims–only volunteers. And you volunteered to become an entrepreneur.
2. Meet new partners. My rich dad said, “In every bad deal, I have always met good people. Some became new partners.”
Today, one of my best friends came from that business fiasco. In the ruins of other business failures, I met my current partner in real estate and another partner in my franchise business.
3. Study your mistakes. Being angry and broke, I wanted to run from my mistakes. But rather than run from my failure, I went back to my factory, studied my mistakes and resurrected the business.
Photo by Joel Bedford.