Don't get me wrong...

I hate to lose.

Big time.

In fact, if you gave me a choice of losing... or... getting smacked upside the head by Godzilla, I'd take a Godzilla smack any day of the week.

But losing can actually be a good thing.

Let me explain:

For the past 10 years of my life, I've been involved in a professional speaking organization. And over that time, I've become a damn good speaker. And a couple of times a year this speaking organization has a competition.

Most times I enter and win these competitions.

But last night, I got my butt kicked.

By a couple of speakers I know I'm better than.

Why did I lose?

I'm not sure. Maybe I had an off night. Maybe I didn't find my rhythm while I was speaking. Maybe the audience just didn't like my speech.

Whatever the case, I lost.

And I didn't like it one bit.

And my mind started saying things like, €Ah... this is bullsh*t. No way these turkeys beat me. The judges are stoopid...€

On and on it went.

Until the €adult€ part of my brain kicked in with the reality that everybody loses and that losing teaches you more than winning.

Why?

Because losing is painful.

It feels awful.

It sucks.

And you can either lose like a schmoe by blaming other people (like I first did).

Or, you can find out why you lost so the next time you can win.

Sales... marketing... and operating a business is the exact same beast.

Many times, no matter how good you are, you will lose.

Maybe you don't close the big deal.

Maybe you don't convince a prospect to buy from you.

Maybe you start a business that goes belly up.

I've been in each of these situations... and... I can tell you that each time I did my best to learn why I lost. And each time I walked away a better person (and with a valuable lesson) thanks to me getting my butt kicked.

That doesn't mean you should like losing.

I hate it.

But the fear of losing certainly does drive me to work hard so I can win.

So what can you do if you lose getting the sale?

Or if your marketing piece bombs?

Or if your business suffers some other loss?

Well...

You got two choices:

1) You can either get mad and blame other people (or the world) for your loss.

2) Or, you can take an honest look at why you lost.

Maybe nobody wanted to buy what you were trying to sell. Maybe your competitor's sales presentation was really better than yours. Maybe the business you hoped would take off really does not sell anything the public wants to buy.

I don't know the answer to why lost.

I do know that if you want to get better (at anything) then you will lose.

And if you try to figure out why you lost, you'll have a much better shot of winning next time.