Top 5 Ways to “Fail Forward”

We plan, and God laughs.

In July 2013, life handed me yet another unwelcomed surprise: My employer lost our venture backing and my whole team was let go. Yes, fired. While it wasn’t personal, or a direct reflection on me, I was devastated nonetheless.

That setback caused my early retirement dreams to crash and burn. No severance pay. No golf course condo at the beach (at least not yet). With one kid in college and another almost there, tuition bills loomed overhead. Meanwhile, if I heard employers say “you’re overqualified” once more, I thought I would vomit. Literally.

But, no worries. My friend Rose said (according to my box of rocks) that I never give up,and she’s right.

Work the plan

I wake up every day and work my plan: to rebuild my consulting company using social media marketing to help grow businesses. Heck, I ran Business Boomers and served as a freelance director of marketing for 18 years. I decided it was time to ramp up again with even better digital tools and a focus on building an annuity model (creating online courses so I can “do once, and use many.”) I leverage the tools and my tribe of 400+ social media and marketing pros to really make businesses BOOM in this connected era. Buy us, rent us. Let us coach you or provide the hands-on help. We’ve perfected the virtual marketing support model so everyone can afford top-quality help. BOOM!

New York Times best-selling author John C. Maxwell @johnmaxwellco wrote in Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones for Success:

The difference between average people and achieving people is their perception of (and response to) setbacks. He says, “In life, the question is not IF you will have problems, but how you are going to deal with them.”

So I am applying both life AND business lessons to prove my RESILIENCE. Taking Maxwell’s advice, here are my 5 steps to STOP the pity-party and FAIL FORWARD for a better tomorrow:

• LEARN: Prove that old dogs can learn new tricks! Social media manager certification #smms has sharpened my skills and built a global team of friends and colleagues.
• BREATHE: Yes, literally. And stretch. I golf as much as possible and enjoy cardio kickboxing to burn calories and clear my head.
• GIVE BACK: volunteer for charities you really care about. I provide social media for the PGA Tour, the LPGA, my golf league and I mentor student athletes through uWantgame.org. What a great way to build skills while making the world a better place!
• MAKE TIME FOR FRIENDS: Grab coffee. Take a walk. Jump on a call or a zoom meeting with friends from around the globe.
• TACKLE YOUR BUCKET LIST: My husband and kids conspired to grant my top bucket list wish: a summer Mediterranean cruise to Spain, France and Italy. That sparked plenty to blog about – not to mention meeting up with some new LinkedIn social media colleagues from Italy!

How have you overcome setbacks to FAIL FORWARD?

I would love to hear from you!

Pat Roque