Failure is the Road to Success – Introduction to Growth Hacking by Marlene Kanto
How do you feel inside when I say that you have failed in something? Do you have this little nagging feeling where you aren’t really comfortable? Everything today should be perfect all the time and a lot of people don’t really like showing weaknesses, so it is a natural feeling. What about if I say that working towards failure is not a weakness, is it actually a strength. Don’t believe me? Just keep reading.
Have you seen professional athletes train to be the best they can be? Every day they need to challenge themselves one step further and succeed in things they never have done before. To do that, they aren’t afraid of failing because they will fail and fail again before they are good enough to succeed. This could be at the gym – failing in the last repetition to know that they have given their all to get stronger. Or at the field – trying a new free kick meaning they will take that shot over and over again before they score.
The same can be applied with growth hacking, but with a twist. I have been to Silicon Valley several times and met with companies like AirBnb and Uber and discussed how they are working with growth hacking. One of the key things is to fail fast, in order for you to get more time focusing on the things that will succeed. Many companies decide on projects that take several months or even years before the end user will take part of the new solution. Is that really the best way of maximizing possible outcome?
Imagine you have money for a runway of one year. What do you think is the best way to succeed – develop one product during 52 weeks and then release or 52 products and releasing one per week?
How can we be sure what the customers actually want and are willing to pay for? By testing as many different solutions in the fastest way, we can see which are more successful and which are failing and focus our efforts on the solutions with the highest outcome. Hence, you don’t want to spend too much time on one single solution because you thought it was the right one and are not really willing to admit that it has failed. Instead, you want to fail fast and put your effort and energy in the areas that will succeed. This will give you the best chance of finding the one solution that will grow and grow and grow until you have reached the full potential.
Good luck!
My background
My name is Marlene Kanto and I have been a professional soccer player, trainee at Volvo, IT Manager at Accenture, founder of RaceONE and now working with what I love - Growth Hacking and helping other companies succeed.
I have had an amazing career within soccer - I have played in the Swedish national team, Champions League where I won silver and won gold medals both in SM and Svenska Cupen. Meanwhile I have had a “regular” career as well, where I 7 years ago started my own company RaceONE (working with virtual and physical races such as Göteborgsvarvet and Vätternrundan). Now I am focusing on growth hacking where I help companies find the best product that their users love and would like to pay for.
If you are interested in what growth hacking can do for you and your company, please contact me on LinkedIn or by emailing marlene@otnak.se and I am happy to tell you more.
