In this episode of Small Biz MBA, host Yasmin Ali opens with a discussion on business failure, emphasizing that failure is personal and inevitable for entrepreneurs. She cites South African statistics showing that over 90% of businesses close voluntarily, prompting a need to define what failure means—whether cash‑flow loss, prolonged lack of sales, or credit damage. Yasmin introduces RaceCorp’s “failing forward” mindset, which treats every setback as a learning opportunity. She illustrates this with a construction‑sector entrepreneur who lost a major contract; the loss revealed that his systems and capacity were insufficient for such a project, leading him to adjust his pitch and scale his business appropriately. The conversation shifts to the broader psychological aspects: entrepreneurs often fear success more than failure because success brings heightened expectations and responsibility. Yasmin stresses that inaction is lethal, urging entrepreneurs to act despite fear. The segment concludes by previewing an interview with Charlotte Kemp, author of I’m Not Afraid of the F Word, which will explore these themes further.
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On Small Business MBA this week, we take a look at the lessons failure can teach us, and at how to fail forward. Then, RaceCorp's Yasmin Ali chats to Charlotte Kemp, author of I'm Not Afraid of the F Word.
Hi, and welcome to Small Biz MBA. I'm your host, Yasmin Ali, and this week the topic is one that none of us really want to talk about— failure. Did you know that in South Africa, over 90% of businesses are closed voluntarily? In other words, the entrepreneur decides that it is too tough and closes the business, or stops putting any time into it, because they've gone into full-time employment. So, we need to first and foremost define what we mean by failure. Is it when your cash flow dries up? Is it when you've gone without sales for months at a time? Maybe it's when your personal credit record gets affected. Understand that this definition is very personal to each entrepreneur, and there is no real definition of failure. However, let's be honest, in attempting this entrepreneurship thing, there will be failure along the way. One of the key characteristics of entrepreneurs is the ability to deal with failure and the possibility of failure. We get knocked down, and we get back up. So, if you're new to this, please expect failure. At RaceCorp, we take the view of failing forward. It's a principle that we strongly employ internally and reinforce whenever we work with our entrepreneurs, regardless of the process or action item, it pertains to fail forward. Failing forward simply means that when there is a failure, regardless of how big or small, we look at the lessons learned in the failure. In every situation, there is learning. And in failing, the learning is often far more rich. I remember an entrepreneur in the construction industry who had been working on securing a deal for months. He put his numbers together very meticulously, made sure that he had a strong value proposition, In theory, this was his deal until it was awarded to someone else. While we never expect to win every contract, this failure hit him very hard, and it made him question his entire model. When it was unpacked in one of the interventions offered, he realized that if he had won the contract, he would never have been able to deliver the quality that he would have wanted. His business's systems were simply not ready to deliver on such a big contract. And when he looked at his sales pitch and specifically specifically the capacity section, it was clear that nobody would believe that he could deliver. Not only did this need to change in his pitch, but in his business as a whole. And if he was going to consider contracts of that size, the other learning, of course, would be that if he was going to keep his business at the size that he was, he needed to not pitch for such big contracts. Now, nobody likes failing, but what this enables is the ability to free ourselves from the expectations of perfection. Nobody is perfect. We always strive to hit the target as close as possible, but we no longer fear failure. It's just a step on the road to success. It also gives us the ability to action without as much fear. As an entrepreneur, the worst thing we can do is nothing. A lack of action is lethal for a business, not only because what stagnates dies, but because when entrepreneurs see their ideas being carried out through other people, it builds great resentment towards those people and towards the industry as a whole. I have seen it even leading to estrangement with what the entrepreneur would previously have described as their best clients. But here's the key question. How can someone buy from you what you are not selling? And whenever we delay and procrastinate, it is based on a fear of some kind. Incidentally, speaking of fear, the RaceCorp experience has been that entrepreneurs actually tend to fear success a lot more than failure. With success comes much expectation and responsibility, and many entrepreneurs especially those not yet in the growth or eagle style, are not ready for. And that's okay. Like I mentioned in the Types of Entrepreneur episode, these are things that we can definitely learn. And after the break, I speak to Charlotte Kemp, author of I Am Not Afraid of the F Word. Intrigued? Join me after the break.
