In August of 2000 I developed an idea to take our multimedia production company Bone One Studios national through a franchised based growth strategy. With a singular vision, I recruited a team of 9 committed individuals and wrote a comprehensive business plan to sell the concept. By September 9th, 2001 I had completed the financial projections for the endeavor and was ready to start shopping the concept to the venture capital community. Who knew that two days later America would be changed forever.

America’s collective heart stopped and the nation went into mourning. Business took a hard hit and the advertising industry in particular hit a very hard time. Within months multimillion dollar production companies were going out of business as corporate multimedia budgets dried up. I continued on for the next year pitching my heart out to every investor I could get an audience with, but, to no avail. The investment community did not like the concept, who wouldn’t, when the market had suddenly dried up?

After two years of hard work, I had to admit defeat and tell the team that it was over. It was a very humbling experience. I had failed. I had failed myself and my team in securing the funding and brining about the vision that I had laid out for them. It was a definite low point in my career.

Needless to say, my ego was a little bruised. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do at that point, and my confidence was not at an all time high. I took it one day at a time, and eventually with in a few months, I was back to my old optimistic and ambitious self. I found a renewed vigor as I carved out a new vision for the company which would eventually become Redlake, Inc. It was an evolutionary journey in my professional career and one that I am so grateful to have gone through. Adversity makes us stronger and more resolute, at least for those willing to dust them selves off and get back up.

The most valuable thing that I learned from that two year experience was that failure is a fallacy. It’s a fallacy because you truly only fail when you walk away from something like that and you don’t learn something. What I gained in business experience as an entrepreneur and as a leader in those two years is priceless and no one can ever take that away from me. I jokingly refer to that period of time as when I was earned my MBA. I learned so many different things about business in the process of pitching my vision to the investment community and no amount of book or classroom learning could ever equal that. Education is great, but nothing beats real live experience.

The moral of the story is this; move past your fears and embrace risk, because failure is just a natural part of your growth and evolution. Our most valuable lessons and some of our most character building experiences come from surviving and ultimately thriving through failure.

Reader Survey: Have you ever failed in business or your career in some way, yet walked away with a tremendous personal experience that made you stronger and more equipped as a business person moving forward?
 
If you have a question for the Maniacal Marketer, please send it This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . Christine Regan is the president of Redlake, Inc, www.redlake.tv, a marketing and sales agency in New York

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