The year was 1994. Netscape Navigator came to market, Tom Hanks portrayed Forrest Gump and we couldn’t get “The Lion King’s” “Hakuna Matata” out of our heads.
It was also the year two pioneering tech companies were born: Amazon and Delta Media Group. Both tech startups would share a common lineage by building success through a history of pioneering innovations and firsts.
While Amazon was initially bringing book sales to the internet, Delta was paving the way for property information to move out of the real estate office and into buyers’ and sellers’ living rooms. Initially, the only listing information came from the Pacific Northwest, but today, Delta ingests and normalizes property data covering nearly all the U.S. and parts of Canada.
Like Amazon, Delta was an early pioneer in moving to the cloud (2001) to enable massive scaling. Today, it handles over 100 million visits per month and billions of daily database transactions, while automation and AI dominate both firms’ future planning.
While Delta is not a trillion-dollar company, all successful firms know that the true essence of leadership and innovation isn’t found solely in pioneering achievements; it’s the ability to learn and grow through trial and error. Over the past three decades, one invaluable lesson stands out: it’s not only okay to fail—failure is what leads to success.
Mistakes are stepping stones toward better leadership and improved business strategies. What we learn from our missteps ultimately makes us better leaders and improves our companies. Focus on applying the lessons you can extract from the miscues and blunders to advance. It’s about learning how to fail forward.
As you pilot your journey in the real estate industry, remember that embracing failure is not a sign of weakness but a testament to your resilience and determination. Remember Amazon Auctions, which were going to take on eBay? Every firm can make colossal mistakes, but taking big risks also delivers enormous rewards.
Michael Jordan’s analogy puts failure in perspective: “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times, I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
Looking back on the last 30 years as a pioneer has taught us that success in the real estate industry comes down to resilience. Embracing failure as a part of your growth strategy can propel you forward, ensuring your ability to lead and innovate in our industry.
It’s the ability to pick yourself up after a fall, dust yourself off and keep moving forward. It’s the courage to face your fears and never stop believing in yourself, your people and your company.
So, use your setbacks as a springboard to success, and never let them define you. You’ll find that the most significant growth often comes from the most difficult times.
Remember, it’s not about being perfect. It’s about being better than you were yesterday.
