Failure Is Your Friend, and 3 More Lessons MSPs Must Take from Startup Culture

By Brad Stoller

In Silicon Valley, the phrases “fail forward” and “fail fast” are something of a mantra for startups aggressively building a minimum viable product, gaining market traction and pursuing venture-capital funding so that they can keep iterating and keep growing.

For these companies, iterations and tests are ways to quickly eliminate dead ends and seize profitable opportunities. If a startup spends two years of development before putting the product in front of customers, they risk burning through thousands – if not millions – of dollars of capital, if the market responds with a shrug. The better alternative is to experiment early and refine, refine, refine.

Maybe your business started this way, with a mind toward innovation and the grit to grow when faced with failure. But even the most innovative brands drift into complacency. Success can make leaders less willing to experiment. Maybe there are more decision-makers to wrangle, or client needs demand too much attention. Or perhaps you are outright afraid to do anything to compromise the position you worked so hard to achieve.

The problem, however, is that when you stop the behaviors that drove your growth in the first place, you still expect the business to grow.

When you first began and were scrappy and bold, you would knock on doors, hustle your network and try creative marketing campaigns to get yourself in front of prospects. You had a motivational culture.

Why do young businesses tend to behave this way?

They see the things their larger competitors aren’t doing. They see their complacency. And in that complacency, they see opportunity.

To continue driving the level of growth that got you to where you are today, you can’t leave behind that willingness to be scrappy and fail forward.

Here’s how you can keep that visionary startup mentality without gambling the business:

If you challenge yourself to be one those rare businesses that stays aggressive and stays bold, even when they find success and stability, you can rise above your competition to be one of the elite and innovative brands in your space. The only way to get there, however, is to continue thinking like an entrepreneur, scouting new horizons and boldly going where you haven’t dared to go before.

Brad Stoller is responsible for helping prospective clients to understand PT and its appointment-setting capabilities through a consultative approach.  Before joining The PT Services Group, Brad was a State Farm agency owner, providing insurance and financial services solutions. Over the years, he has been a serial entrepreneur, building and developing businesses in real estate and marketing.