Get Back Up If You Fall

My lifelong partnership and journey with horses is the inspiration for “Straight from the Horse’s Mouth”. Lessons from the stable to the workplace.

This post explores the old saying "get back on the horse after you fall". It refers to resuming something after you've failed.

Resuming signifies resilience and tenacity -- all good things. But simply resuming might not be enough. There should be reflection on what caused the fall. There should also be consideration about how AND when to resume.

In life or business, not everything will be a success. Projects fail. We miscalculate. We make wrong assumptions. Competitors beat us to market. We fall.

It's not the fall itself that matters, but how we respond to the fall. The most important thing is to objectively assess what led to the failure -- without assigning blame -- and document lessons learned.

A few considerations:

• Was there a comprehensive project plan outlining timeline, resources, budget?

• Were stakeholders kept informed about progress?

• Did something unexpected happen -- e.g. key employee resigned, increase cost of materials?

• What could be done differently?

• What lessons were learned?

Get back on that horse and ride like the wind!