“I learned more from my failure than my success.” Were the words Lisa Lloyd used to describe the end of Treasure Chest Pets, the product that landed her a spot on Shark Tank and an investment from Daymond John and Barbara Corcoran.

Lisa’s life-changing idea was a barrette that has generated more than $20 million dollars globally, she has since licensed six more products. Although Treasure Chest Pets shut down its doors, Lisa was hired by Daymond John to train the entrepreneurs that he brings aboard. Discussing failure with a woman who has accomplished so much has allowed me to redefine the way that I approach failure in my life and to understand that sometimes it’s simply an opportunity to refocus.

Recovering from failure

It was the perfect storm, Unfortunately, one that Treasure Chest Pets simply could not recover from.

“It was devastating, frankly I had my entire identity wrapped up in my success.”

“With 8 patents that generated over 30 million dollars in revenue by the time I was 30, I was used to being very successful. I quickly realized that I had very thin skin and very low tolerance for failure, it crushed me.”

Recovering from failure for Lisa, included a fresh start. She packed her bags, moved to New Orleans and started over with a completely new group of friends and a new job as the manager for the Gulf Coast with T-Mobile. Although it took time, stepping away allowed her to understand and accept that what she does or does not do is not relative to who she is and how she feels.

It was a long process, and up to a year-and-a-half to two years ago her new friends did not know who she was or what she did.

Sometimes recovering from failure means stepping away from everything that seems to have gone wrong and allowing yourself the opportunity to remember that your identity is not wrapped up in your failure.

No amount of obsessing will change the results, the reality is that you have already failed, and the best thing that you can do for yourself at that point is to find a way to recover, learn and then improve in order to move on to your success story.

Acknowledge and learn from your mistakes

“I made the same mistake that I warned all first-time inventors against, I didn’t properly vet the market, and there’s an old phrase that goes, The nose of the Bulldog is slanted back so that he can keep breathing without letting go.

There comes a time where when the market isn’t validating, whether it’s because of the economy or things in or out of your control, you have to know when to let go. The biggest mistake I think I made was continuing to throw good money after bad as opposed to tabling the business or pivoting.”

Approach your failure the same way that you would approach all other areas of your business. Gather all the facts and work through them strategically asking yourself the questions that matter. What are the things that you could have done differently? Why did you fail?

Failure is simply an opportunity to improve on a great idea or to recycle parts of a bad idea in order to transform it into something awesome.

Your success is a manifestation of who you are on the inside

“The success that I have is a manifestation of who i am on the inside. I needed to recover and to understand my self-esteem is not based on the success or failure of Treasure Chest Pets.”

Mahatma Gandhi said, “A man is but a product of his thoughts — what he thinks he becomes.”

You are what you believe you are. Understanding the power that you hold over your destiny in thought alone can help to redefine the way that you approach failure and success in business as well as in life. Allowing failure to discourage you and to keep you from impacting your world according to your purpose is a decision that the most successful people in the world have chosen not to make.

Jim Carrey was booed off the stage of his first comic stand up, Katy Perry only sold 200 copies of her first album, Oprah Winfrey was fired from a local TV station for being unfit for television, and in 1995 12 famous publishers rejected J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter. And just like everyone else mentioned above, Anderson is one of today’s most inspirational success stories. Your success is a manifestation of your ability to learn from your mistakes and to keep pushing forward.

What have you learned from failure? Let us know in the comments below.

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Nancy Laws

Writing since May 2016 · 1 story contributed