Young employees, fresh out of university; or young entrepreneurs eager to make their mark in the world -- will be highly affected if things don't go their way. Especially when they carry the responsibility to perform something for the sake of the entire organization, and they failed. The fact is that it is inevitable that in life, we will face failures. Nobody wins everytime. However, just remember that as long as it's not the end of the world, it means we can still get back up.
I Just Lost My Company's Biggest Deal. Now What?
By: Brant Pinvidic
Bad things happen to good companies all the time. Whenever the sky seems to be falling, I often hear the old mantra, “How you handle adversity reveals your true character.” I hope that’s only half true because when I lost one quarter of my projected revenue for the entire year in a single phone call, I dealt with losing my company’s biggest deal like a snotty, spoiled, little crybaby. So what does that say about me? I’d like to think it says I care deeply about the success of my company, and that in business I’m a very sore loser.
My business is to create, sell, and produce television shows, but my day-to-day is surprisingly not much different than most businesses. There are a lot of empty sales calls, many times where we ‘almost closed the deal,’ and plenty of straight-up rejections. But I know that every year I’ll craft and create enough good ideas that after all the misses and misfires, a few projects will eventually make it through and be produced as TV shows.
The moment a project finally makes it past the development and budgeting stages with the network is when I start counting on it for revenue. However, this failed deal was one of those rare times when a very lucrative and important chicken I’d counted on didn’t hatch.
My partner on this particular project was a wildly successful bigwig producer and she’d just had lunch with the head of the network.
“So how did it go?” I eagerly questioned.
She simply replied, “They’re going to cancel the project.”
The rest of our conversation was mostly a blur. We vented over what an outrage this was, how months of great work were going to waste, and where we might find another potential buyer. You get the picture.
When I called her I was sitting on a great year; when I hung up I was facing a potentially disastrous year.
Now what? I ‘ve read about the seven stages of grief, but I only experienced three. They went a little something like this:
I doubted myself. I had a crushing thought that this was a ‘me’ problem, a sense that my time had passed and that my best creative years were behind me.
I focused on the very worst outcome. I looked at all my projects and felt as though they would ALL get cancelled. In fact, I was certain everything I created or pitched for the rest of the year would go absolutely nowhere.
I gave up. I gave up on the business, on my forecasts, and on the future potential of my company. Every inch of my being just simply gave up.
Try being creative or a good leader with those feelings pounding on the insides of your guts from the second you wake up till the moment you cry yourself to sleep.
I ruminated over the previous 8 months on the project. Where did I go wrong? The painful truth is there’s really nothing else I could’ve done creatively to get this project over the goal line. Seemingly random cancellations are part of the risk of selling network television series. But I was already counting on this project and my passionate belief it was going to happen didn’t allow me to consider that it might not.
The next day I could feel the tension in the office. I knew what the team needed to hear; they needed an epic halftime locker room pep talk. But I just couldn’t rise to the occasion. I was paralyzed.
This lasted for weeks. But then something strange happened. I started feeling good about feeling so awful. Dare I say, I actually enjoyed being so distraught and miserable? I’d spent my entire life as an entrepreneur putting on a brave face, pushing past doubt, sucking it up, and always looking at the bright side. It actually felt good to let it all go and embrace feeling defeated.
I think I needed the disappointment. While it didn’t make the situation any better, I creatively and emotionally needed the break from the pressure of being the optimistic entrepreneur. There was something very cathartic and freeing about this experience.
By embracing misery, I gave myself an emotional reset and now feel fresher and more focused than ever before. My employees can sense my renewed energy and the enthusiasm around the office is infectious. Will it translate to even more revenue than what I lost on the scrapped project? I guess we’ll find out.
As an entrepreneur, you’re expected to handle every setback and failure like a professional cheerleader. Ninety-nine percent of the time you will keep your chin up, stay positive, and carry on with a smile on your face. But every once in a while, throwing a little tantrum might just be good for your sanity.
[ Source: Forbes ]
All posts in this blog are my own personal views (unless explicitly mentioned otherwise) and are not to be associated with any organization or institution related to me.