Why Failure Might Be the Best Thing for You

Nobody likes failing. But what if failure wasn’t the end of the story?

The truth is, every misstep gives you feedback you can use — insight into what didn’t work, and a clearer path to what will. 

In this Sunday Session, I’m sharing how to see failure as tuition rather than punishment, with lessons from sales calls that didn’t convert, campaigns that flopped, and stories from Edison, Jordan, and Mel Robbins.

So tune in, reflect, and give yourself permission to treat every failure as a step forward, not a setback.

Want My Help to Build Your £70K+ HR Consultancy?

1️⃣ Grab a copy of my book – The Complete Guide to Building a £70K HR Consultancy – and discover how to get every lead and client you need.

2️⃣ Apply to Join The Fastlane Formula – so we can work together 1-to-1 to get you earning £70K+ faster (and easier) than going it alone.

Transcript

0:02 Hello there, and welcome back to another episode of Sunday Sessions with me, Nick Poninski. Today's episode is all about failure.
0:08 Now nobody likes failing, but failure is one of the best teachers you'll ever have, right? It's uncomfortable, it stings, sometimes it's embarrassing, but here's the truth.
0:20 Failure isn't punishment, failure is tuition, it gives you data, it gives you insight, it gives you lessons, you can't buy anywhere else.
0:28 Now, thank you. I've had loads of failures in my life. I won't send out an email when I worked in HR that wasn't written in the best way possible.
0:38 It lost me trust, it lost me credibility, it lost me buying from the people that I needed to work with on a day-to-day basis.
0:46 Lesson learned, always check before you send, always reread it, leave that email to sit there and you know and then read it back half an hour later or something.
0:58 I remember my hate child boss at the time said to me be careful when you're sending things out in email because once you've sent it you've lost control of it it's gone and that lesson that hit me hard because here I am over 10 years later still talking about it then there was the time I sent a contract
1:14 to the wrong person I ended up sharing financial and personal data with someone who should never have seen it. Brutal mistake, but it told me the importance of having strong processes in place.
1:27 I also tried a direct mail campaign that got zero responses, zero, none, but instead of just writing that off, I realised it was a valuable insight.
1:39 It showed me what didn't resonate with my audience, it gave me clues about what to test next. And I have messed up countless sales calls, said the wrong thing at the wrong time or worse.
1:51 Stead silent when I should have asked the right question. Those calls didn't convert and those clients they never became clients, right?
1:59 But again, it was tuition. It forced me to practice to get coaching to refine my approach. And this, this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to my professional mistakes.
2:10 Don't even get me started on my personal life. But the point is this, failure is feedback. every know, every flop, every silence from your marketing or sales efforts is data.
2:22 It's your market telling you something and if you listen to it, if you reflect on it, if you act on it, that's how you grow, right?
2:30 So if you're a HR consultant, listen to this. Think about your own journey. Maybe you've run a LinkedIn campaign that nobody responded to.
2:37 Maybe you've had sales calls where the client didn't want to go ahead with you. That doesn't mean that you're failed, means you've got feedback, right?
2:45 A sales call that didn't convert, ask yourself, what question did I miss? What assumption did I make? A lead gen effort that flopped?
2:53 Perfect, you've just narrowed down what doesn't work, which gets you closer to what does. And think about Thomas, I want to give you a real life example of this.
3:02 Think about Thomas Edison. He said, I haven't failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work. Michael Jordan, he missed more than 9,000 shots.
3:13 You know, he Michael Jordan, the greatest basketball player of all time, missed more than 9,000 shots lost over 300 games.
3:20 Still, the greatest basketball player of all time. Mel Robbins, she talks about how failure forces us to take responsibility and adjust.
3:29 So every high performer in business or in life, they treat failure as tuition, not punishment. And here's a practical tip for you, journaling.
3:39 After any failure, sit down, write out for your questions. What went well? What could have gone better? What would I do differently next time?
3:48 That reflection that turns failure into fuel. So if you're failing, it means you're still in the game, you're learning, you're progressing.
3:55 remember every failure is tuition, not punishment. So hopefully that lesson was interesting for you, that lesson, that episode was interesting for you, thank you for listening along, I hope you've enjoyed it and there's ever because it's Sunday embrace the change because is how we grow.