As entrepreneurs, we pour our heart and soul into building something, often taking risks others would shy away from. But when things don’t go as planned, the feelings of disappointment, frustration and even shame can be overwhelming.

The truth is that failure is an inevitable part of entrepreneurship. While it’s never easy, learning how to cope with it is essential for moving forward. As Bill Gates once said, “Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.” It’s often in failure that we learn the most valuable lessons.

Through my own experiences with failure, I’ve found a few key strategies that help manage the emotions and challenges that come with it. Here are four strategies that have helped me — hopefully they’ll help you, too!

Related: 10 Lessons About Failure That Every Entrepreneur Needs to Know

1. Feel your feelings

One of the first things you need to do after experiencing failure is to let yourself feel everything. You can’t make clear decisions if you’re pretending not to be upset. Acknowledge your emotions — whether they include frustration, sadness or anger — and give yourself time and space to lean into those feelings.

At the same time, it’s crucial to set a deadline for when you’ll stop wallowing and get back to work. The amount of time you need should reflect the size of the failure. For example, if your whole business failed, you might need a year. If your product launch failed, maybe a week is enough. Not all failures are created equal, so honor the time you need to get back on your feet.

When my first company didn’t succeed, I felt the weight of that failure deeply. I spent months obsessing over starting another company, frantically coming up with ideas that weren’t great because I was forcing it. Eventually, I realized I needed to step back and give myself space to learn. I decided to spend a year working at another startup, learning as much as I could before even considering starting another business. When I finally did, I ended up founding Lemonlight.

The takeaway here is to give yourself time to process, but also set boundaries. Once you allow yourself to feel your emotions fully, you’ll be clearer and more focused when it’s time to take action — and maybe your next great idea will find you!

2. Talk to other entrepreneurs who have failed

Failure can feel incredibly lonely. The shame and guilt that often come with it can make you doubt your abilities and your future. But you’re not alone, and there are other people (lots of other people) who have been in your shoes! Talking to other entrepreneurs who have also experienced failure is a great way to get back on your feet.

No matter how many articles you read or how many people tell you that failure is part of entrepreneurship, it still hurts when it happens to you. Hearing stories from others who have been there — and have come out the other side — can make the experience feel less isolating. It’s comforting to know that even the most successful entrepreneurs have faced failure at some point.

Reading books about entrepreneurship, failure and growth can also help. Whether through personal conversations or reading about others’ experiences, learning from those who’ve already been where you are gives you the perspective and tools you need to keep moving forward.

Related: Why You Must Embrace Failure to Succeed in Business

3. Make a list of everything you’ve learned

One of the most important things you can do after a failure is to take stock of what you’ve learned. It might not feel like it in the moment, but every failure brings valuable lessons. Take the time to write down everything you’ve learned from the experience, no matter how small it seems. This list will serve as a reminder that your failure wasn’t for nothing — it was an opportunity for growth.

Documenting these lessons while they’re still fresh will be helpful later on. You’ll likely encounter similar challenges in the future, and having this list will allow you to identify patterns and solutions more easily. It also helps shift your mindset from viewing failure as something purely negative to seeing it as a resource that can lead to better decisions down the road.

For example, when my first business failed, I made note of the mistakes I made, the decisions I should have thought through more carefully and the areas where I could have improved. Those insights became invaluable when I started my next venture. They helped me avoid making the same mistakes and laid the foundation for smarter decision-making with Lemonlight.

4. Take contrary action

Contrary action means doing the things you don’t feel like doing — especially the things you want to avoid most. It’s natural to want to retreat after a failure, but this is when you need to take action. Doing things that feel uncomfortable, like attending a networking event or having a tough conversation about your failure, is essential for breaking through the fear and moving forward.

Taking ownership of the situation is key here. It’s easy to let failure weigh you down, but the fastest way to move through it is to face it head-on. Talk about it, be honest about what happened, and embrace the lessons you’ve learned. The more you hide away and pretend the failure didn’t happen, the more you’ll prolong the experience and keep yourself stuck.

When I’ve been at my lowest after a business didn’t work out, one of the hardest things was facing the people I felt like I had failed — explaining what happened and owning up to my mistakes. But those conversations, while difficult, were necessary for closure and growth. They also helped rebuild my confidence.

Every step you take, even the ones that feel scary, is a step toward regaining your momentum. Taking contrary action can break negative patterns, build self-discipline and ultimately help you grow as an entrepreneur.

Related: 8 Steps to Transform Your Failed Business Into a Success Story

Failure is an unfortunate part of the entrepreneurial journey, but it doesn’t have to define you. By using these four strategies, you can cope with failure in a healthy and productive way.

The next time you face a setback, take a step back, assess which of these strategies can help, and move forward with a renewed sense of purpose. You’ll find that each failure brings you closer to success, as long as you keep pushing forward.

As small and midsize businesses (SMBs) continue to face economic challenges, reducing software costs has become a significant focus for entrepreneurs and small business owners. According to McKinsey, approximately 60% of SMBs actively price shop for technology and software and are looking for cost-effective solutions without compromising on quality.

Going back to the software basics could be one way to cut costs. Through October 27 only, you can choose from Microsoft Office Home & Business 2019 for Mac or Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2019 for Windows for just $24.97 (reg. $229).

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3 Benefits of owning a Hi-Five Sports franchise:

1. Engages community with fun, developmental sports programs for children.
2. Offers flexibility with home-based or dedicated facility business models.
3. Access to a proven business model in the growing youth sports market.

Hi-Five Sports is a franchise that specializes in youth sports programs and facilities, offering an array of sporting activities aimed at fun and developmental experiences for children. Founded in 1990 and franchising since 2015, the business has innovative recreational youth sports programs, including summer camps, leagues, and exciting birthday parties featuring their mascot, Murphy.

Key Facts:

• Minimum Initial Investment: $28,450
• Initial Franchise Fee: $15,900 – $29,000
• Veteran Incentives: $2,000 off franchise fee

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been creating a lot of volatility across industries around the world. And in 2024, it is still creating so many waves that are rocking the boat for investors looking to ride the AI wave.

It’s easy to see the potential for AI to create massive disruption, but it can also create massive disasters if you don’t know how to sail the stormy seas.

My four rules here will help you cut through the noise and hype — in 2024 and beyond.

1. Mastering the regulatory context

These new developments will undoubtedly cause some turmoil in the industry, regardless of whether they coalesce into a full-fledged upheaval. In response, governments are rushing to establish new regulations to curb unchecked profiteering by weighing benefits against risks.

For instance, the AI Act, a proposed legislation for the EU, aims to taxonomize systems based on their riskiness, measured with social scoring, biometric ID and mass surveillance. These rules on transparency and accountability will therefore have a direct impact on the adoption of the systems, which in turn will affect the profitability of companies using them.

This would mean that countries with different policies would create challenges for firms operating across the world, however committed they might be to journeying with machine learning (ML) models. Given the variations in philosophical outlook and political frameworks, I suspect it could take a long time for the Global Partnership on AI(GPAI) and similar international initiatives to harmonize regulatory standards.

As an investor, it’s crucial to follow these international regulatory changes closely, as the rapid pace could lead to significant risks.

Related: AI Is Changing How Businesses Recruit for Open Roles — and How Candidates Are Gaming the System

2. Optimizing return on investment

Industries exist to be disrupted — efficiently and at scale. All the fashionable buzzwords promise substantial rewards that attract major investments.

However, you can’t discount the fact that it’s all about future rewards. Implementing AI technology requires very large initial investments—you need infrastructure, software, and all sorts of skilled talent. Take Nvidia, for example; its massive investment in semiconductors and AI technologies has led to a remarkable 239% increase in its capitalization by 2023. This highlights how initial investments can generate big returns, but only if adoption is widespread and competitive advantage is clearly demonstrated.

Indeed, that may still be wise so as not to fall into the trap of buying into hype and paying over the odds. That popped the bubble in the dot-com era in the 2000s.

Examining financials and market metrics — such as the P/E ratio, for example, to determine whether stock price reflects earnings — provides necessary navigational guidance. Additionally, analyzing technical indicators, such as candlestick charts to track trends, daily volatility and market sentiment toward the company can further enhance your understanding of market dynamics.

3. Technological infrastructure

Given AI’s substantial data demands, investments must establish robust technological foundations to fully capitalize on the technology’s potential.

AI relies on feedback from large-scale data sets, requiring companies to have the infrastructure to efficiently manage, store, and process this data. Is the hardware scalable and flexible? Is it secure?

Providing your own computing infrastructure isn’t always an option. AWS, the Amazon Web Services cloud computing platform, and Microsoft’s Azure can run basic AI-powered services. This allows organizations that don’t want to invest in in-house IT to exploit economies of scale, improving efficiency and innovation. Choose the right partners and review providers.

Data-hungry AI requires strong security, especially if it uses public networks. Ensure your AI systems incorporate advanced encryption, access controls and multifactor authentication to protect against potentially catastrophic cyberattacks.

In other words, your tech stack needs to respond to and be able to sustain AI’s data demands and nuanced needs, and this is where the toughest battles for future success will be fought.

Related: This All-Too-Common Communication Mistake Is Derailing Your Company’s Sales and Profit Goals — Here’s How to Fix It

4. Talent acquisition and development

Simply put, AI will only be as effective as the humans who help create it. In an era where specialist, hard-to-fill skills are in high demand, how are recruitment and retention being evaluated? Are efforts successful in attracting and retaining the best minds in specialized fields such as machine learning and data science?

By 2024, talent shortages in AI could make hiring highly competitive, with the AI recruitment market potentially reaching over $1 billion by 2030. To build your team, offering top rewards, captivating projects and a culture of innovation is essential.

Beyond recruitment, providing continuous education to develop skills is just as important, given the rapid changes in the world of AI. Investments must focus on ongoing training to keep talent at the cutting edge. Look for evidence of leadership in learning programs, mentoring, and other upskilling opportunities.

However, even the best human capital strategies can face challenges. Pay close attention to signs of personnel churn or skill set stagnation; these indicators can be as informative as the bottom line.

Today, wise investments in AI require assessing:

• Evolving regulations: monitor for compliance needs across geographies.
• Timelines to profitability: temper hype with realistic runway projections.
• Technical foundations: data, cloud and security elements should be robust.
• Human talent pipeline: recruitment, retention and skill-building are paramount.

When it comes to AI, the key is to be prudently evaluative, avoiding the extremes of pessimistic fatalism and blind optimism currently competing for attention. Through these lenses, you can act strategically and with a long-term focus. The future moves fast, but the insights above will help you time your investments in markets wisely.

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1TB FolderFort cloud storage

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Portable USB 3.0 1TB external hard drive

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Mike Feldstein used to be a “disaster chaser,” building homes and communities after fires, floods, and hurricanes. Over the years, he became an expert in identifying what air quality conditions make people sick and how to fix them. He noticed that the commercial-grade air scrubbers used in places like hospitals and office buildings were effective and powerful—but also loud, ugly, and inaccessible for at-home use.

Then, he had an idea: What if he could develop an industrial-grade air-purifying system that was smaller, less expensive, quiet, and stylish? His company now develops Jaspr air purifiers, which combine innovative design with unparalleled reliability. For $999, the device’s filtration system captures 99.9% of ultra-fine particles as small as 0.1 microns and combats wildfire smoke, mold, allergens, and other common indoor air pollutants, bridging the gap between commercial and consumer use.

Feldstein joins this week’s episode of the One Day with Jon Bier podcast to talk about his path to creating Jaspr and what he learned about founding a company along the way.

Solve a problem

The core of any great business is that it solves a problem. For Feldstein, that problem was finding quality air filtration for at-home use. He originally designed what would later become Jaspr for his family and friends with no intention of taking it to market.

“There was a point where I was like, I don’t really feel like creating a hardware business, but I was just going to order 50 for friends and family,” he says. Then COVID happened, and the need for a product like Jaspr became not only good business but essential for healthy breathing.

Related: ‘I Used to Sleep Under My Desk:’ How a Burnt Out Executive Changed His Ways and Now Runs a Sleep Wearables Company.

Innovate with a bare-bones crew

Jaspr’s success isn’t just about the quality of the product—it’s also about how efficiently Feldstein runs his company. Feldstein says hiring small, skilled teams gives him an edge, allowing Jaspr to run lean while offering good service. Larger organizations can often be slowed down by layers of delegation and meetings. In contrast, with a skeleton crew, Jaspr can compete with much larger firms.

Focus on what matters most

Feldstein’s business strategy is simple: focus on the essentials and execute with precision. In the case of Jaspr, that means improving the quality of the air we breathe. Among his first B2B clients were dentists. Why?

Dental offices “have the worst air by far,” Feldstein says. “They’re literally spraying water and air into your mouth and everyone’s blood, saliva, bacteria, and viruses.” He says that dental offices were scrambling to order his device during the pandemic, with some hygienists refusing to work if the Jaspr started malfunctioning.

Related: This 30-Year-Old Left Harvard and Raised $25 Million in Funding to Launch a Nutrition Business Inspired by His Mom

Spot premium opportunities with minimal overhead

Feldstein says entrepreneurs should look for business opportunities that provide substantial returns without the overhead. He says he was inspired by a trip to Austin, Texas, where a paddleboard company raked in millions of dollars each year, leading a tour to see a bat colony during sunset. Their cost of the paddleboards and an ad in AirBnB was minimal, but the promise of seeing bats was premium.

“It’s $50 a person, and you go on a six-person paddleboard. So each paddleboard’s making 300 bucks, there’s like 10 paddleboards at a time, so the guy’s making like three, four grand an hour, has like him and one other guy,” he says.

Learn how to listen

Feldstein says customer service is an essential part of Jaspr’s business model. He learned about interacting with customers many years earlier when he drove an Uber. That’s right—Feldstein had a brief yet eye-opening stint as an Uber driver before diving into the air purifier industry.

“I was actually losing $2 an hour,” he laughs.

But he wasn’t doing it for the money. He did it to raise money for good causes, get out of his house, and interact with a wide range of people.

“I became an Uber shrink,” he says, guiding his passengers through personal and professional challenges.

Feldstein’s journey from disaster chaser to Uber driver to air purification innovator proves that sometimes, a breath of fresh air is all it takes to turn diverse experiences into a million-dollar business.

Here’s something I’ve always believed: the better you know your team members, the easier it is to give them the support and freedom they need to be successful in their work.

At my last company, all of my direct reports were with me for at least eight years. We went through a significant portion of our lives together. My team members lost family members, had legal issues and fertility issues, got married, moved and divorced, and I saw it all. I also saw how all these things affected their performance in the office — some were temporary changes, while others were forever.

Those experiences also shaped the way I currently run FutureFund, the free fundraising platform for K-12 school groups that I founded. Here’s my advice on building strong working relationships to set your organization up for better teamwork and more success.

You have to know where people are coming from

Some managers don’t want to know about their team’s personal lives or experiences, but I think that’s a mistake. Asking appropriate questions and getting people to open up not only builds trust; it also helps you understand what they’re working with — and what they need to work more effectively.

Here’s an example: I had a first-time manager who was recently promoted, but soon afterward, his performance began to drop.

There are two ways to deal with this kind of thing when it happens. The first one is to give an ultimatum. You tell the person that their performance needs to improve or that they have to go.

The second is to ask them if everything is okay. That’s what I did, and he told me his cancer was back. He was a veteran and had been exposed to some nasty things in Iraq, giving him health problems. Suddenly, the fact that his performance was slipping wasn’t the issue anymore. Our priority became getting him the support he needed — and by being able to help him, we were able to help the business.

10 years later, this employee was still with us, and his work was great again. But I never would have been able to ascertain that if I had taken the other approach.

Really getting to know someone means asking the right questions and listening carefully to the answers. And it’s never too early to start — in fact, you can (and should) begin doing this from the moment you sit down to interview a candidate.

Related: I’ve Interviewed Over 2000 Candidates — Here Are the 2 Questions I’ve Asked the Best Hires

It’s not about micromanaging

Knowing your people isn’t the same as keeping tabs on them. Breathe down a person’s neck, and they’ll come to resent you. But show them you care, and you’ll empower them. It’s a simple difference but an important one.

Mentorship plays a critical role in this process. I’ve written extensively about the role of mentors in business, but the key is to see yourself as a coach — someone who is actively involved in your team’s success.

Adopting this perspective keeps your feedback constructive instead of punitive and reassures your direct reports that you have their best interests at heart. However, it also requires some vulnerability on your part.

Related: Be a Coach, Not a Referee — How to be a Good Mentor and Manager from a Coaching Perspective

Vulnerability inspires trust and transparency

One aspect of effective mentorship is setting yourself up as someone people trust. Not only do you need to be willing to learn about their lives, but you may also need to be comfortable opening up about yours as well.

One thing we do as an executive team when we get together is share a personal story. It’s usually something about family, and it often involves a personal struggle. It can even result in tears.

It’s not structured or forced. We just go around, and everyone has the opportunity to share as much or as little as they want. It is the single best activity I’ve ever done to feel close to the people I work with.

Everyone is showing a degree of vulnerability by sharing something private, and it takes a lot of courage. It also creates a level of understanding, respect, and friendship that I’ve never seen in any other activity that we’ve done.

Strong working relationships have immeasurable benefits

When you take the time to really get to know your team — and let them get to know you in turn — incredible things can happen. Many of these have a value that is easy to quantify: a better understanding of each individual’s capacity, opportunities for more focused mentorship and coaching, and a sense of what risks people are comfortable taking.

Related: Why You Have to Let People Fail Now So They Can Succeed Later

But there are benefits you can’t measure as well, like loyalty and trust. People don’t just give you these things when you tick enough boxes as an employer. They need to feel like you mean something to them.

Ask the right questions, listen to the answers, and don’t be afraid to open up and share about your own life as well. It might put you outside your comfort zone at first — but as any successful leader will tell you, that’s where growth happens.

My 26-year-old daughter recently got married. I’ve been to dozens of weddings and have enjoyed them, but this was the first time I was involved in putting a wedding together. In the months of planning for this week with my wife, I learned seven valuable lessons that can relate to business.

We thought about having a traditional wedding, so we searched for a wedding venue to hold the reception. However, we ran into a problem. Our guest list included about 500 of our closest friends — most of them were my daughter’s network of fans, friends, students and others.

Paying $50-$150 per plate for a reception venue was out of our budget for that many people. We had a choice: We could whittle down the list or put the wedding together ourselves. We did both.

We got the guest list down to 300 people, and to still save as much money as we could, we did the wedding ourselves. My wife was the wedding coordinator, and I was her assistant.

What does a DIY wedding look like? Well, we bought custom stickers and placed 400 stickers of the bride and groom on 400 water bottles. We borrowed vases from friends and had many of our own from previous events. One of our friends is a design hobbyist, so she made dozens of table settings and bouquets from real flowers and fake flowers. I could go on.

However, what was MOST important about planning this wedding were the lessons I learned in doing it:

Related: 8 Important Lessons From Leading Entrepreneurs

1. Communication is essential

We had several WhatsApp groups to facilitate communication. We had regular meetings for status updates and planning various elements of the wedding. My wife and I were in constant communication. We went to the venue, our church, many times to prepare and plan.

Poor communication is one of the biggest barriers to success. Miscommunication and misunderstanding will sink your business.

Maybe my wife asked me to “put vases on the table,” but I didn’t ask which vases. This can result in the wrong vases being on the wrong tables.

Your business is the same. Communicate clearly — in fact, when the task is highly important, you should over-communicate.

2. Be clear on the goals you’re trying to accomplish

As we went through the weeks leading up to the wedding, we kept in mind the key goals we needed to accomplish. We knew the bride and groom had to get married — that was most important. Other goals we had were good food and a fun environment, among other things.

Your business is the same.

Be clear on what goals you want to accomplish in your business, including the various projects and tasks that are a part of your business. If you’re not clear on your goals, it’s going to be very hard to know what success looks like and how to even be successful.

3. Get help

While my wife shouldered the bulk of responsibilities for the planning of the wedding with my support, we could not have done the wedding by ourselves. We had friends and family helping us at various stages of the wedding.

One couple helped us for weeks leading up to the wedding. Other friends also offered assistance on the day of and in the weeks before the wedding.

Running your business is the same. It’s very difficult to serve your customers and grow your business if it’s just you. Seek help by building a team, and seek help from friends, mentors and even your family. You’ll need help in different ways from different people.

Help could take the form of paying a lawyer to help you draft a legal agreement the right way. Help could take the form of a good business friend giving you advice on a new hire.

Don’t be afraid to get help in starting and growing your business.

4. Who you partner with is important to your success (or failure)

My wife and I were partners in ensuring a successful wedding. We trust each other and do our best to work together. It’s the same in business.

In order for a partnership to be successful, you must understand what’s important to your partner. Understand how they communicate and their styles of working.

A partner can be a POWERFUL asset to your business as they can help offload the thinking and actual work that needs to be done in order to grow a business. However, the wrong partner can be detrimental to your business.

Related: 25 Lessons Business School Won’t Ever Teach You

5. Prioritization is essential — Don’t major on the minors, and don’t minor on the majors

Prioritization is important, especially as the complexity of your projects increases. There’s only so much you can get done in a given day. Time is finite. Hence, being able to prioritize is essential. In preparing for the wedding, we had to constantly prioritize. For example, today, we’re going to set up tables. Tomorrow, we’ll set up vases. As we got closer to the wedding, we had to “let go” of some things and scale back on other things.

You’ll need to do this in your business as well.

What needs to be done TODAY? What can wait until later? What MUST be done this quarter, and what can be held off to another day?

As you work with others, also understand that YOUR priority might not be their priority. Hence, having shared goals and an understanding of what’s important to you, your partner and/or your team is important.

6. Who are the stakeholders?

For the wedding, we knew there were several important people or groups of people we had to consider. The bride and groom were the most important. The groom’s parents were also important, so we had to consider their needs and concerns. We also had to think about our church ministry and their concerns and needs for the wedding.

Your business is the same. You’re NEVER solo in your business. There’s you, your employees (or team members), your customers, possibly government agencies, vendors and others.

Consider the stakeholders who are important to the success of your business, and think about their needs and concerns.

Related: 5 Lessons From The Most Successful Entrepreneurs

7. Get advice from others

Critical to the wedding’s success was our wedding coordination team. This team was made up of my sister, my daughter’s best friend, my wife, my daughter, my daughter’s fiance and me!

We had regular meetings with this team to get their input and their help with much of the planning for the wedding — cake, clothes, housing and so much more.

You also need advisors in your business. You can get advice from peers who are fellow business owners. You can get advice from books and podcasts. You can join a mentorship community. You can also hire a consultant to guide you with certain aspects of your business.

My daughter’s wedding was a success, and now you know why. A wedding is a one-day event. However, your business can take years to grow and be successful. You can’t build a successful business alone — it takes guidance, purposeful planning and a bit of luck.