In 1972 an early tech startup was founded called Traf-O-Data. The company set out to revolutionise the way traffic flow was monitored. After 2 years of work. They had created a prototype microcomputer — one of the first — to count the number of vehicles crossing a certain piece of road.

The companies innovative product put it far ahead of other available solutions. But, despite its best efforts, it failed to find buyers for its product. Making losses of $3,494 between 1974 and 1980. Shutting down soon after.

Failure is a part of life, and the benefits of learning from it are clear. But what about short-cutting the learning-from-failure cycle.

“By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.” Confucius

They failed due to a lack of market research, a fate that has befallen countless endeavours. Making the same mistakes over and over is like making a lightbulb using one of Edison’s 10,000 failed designs. Instead, we build them from the one design that worked.

Why not do the same for other types of failure?

The Question that could save you from failing.

There are many questions you ask yourself when creating something new. Where should this go? How should that work? What are my goals?

There is one simple question you should be asking — but probably aren’t — before you start anything, “How could this fail?”

This simple question could save you from a world of hurt. What would have happened this question been asked it prior to creating Traf-O-Data? Maybe they would have found a solution to the sales problem. Maybe the company would have been a success.

But how do you come up with the different ways you could fail?

1. Look for failures everywhere

Stories of failures are everywhere, in the biographies of the successful, spread through blogs and Medium posts, in everyday conversation. Take in these stories and learn why the failures occurred. Question them, dig deep and find all you can about the causes of the failure.

Actively hunt these stories out. People prefer stories of success — it’s hardwired into us — but try to pay attention to the failures that proceeded them. Any successful person’s story will be littered with them. You’ll learn as much from seeing others fail as you will from their success’.

Keep a notebook, a note on your smartphone, write it down anywhere. Keep a list of the different failure stories and the mistakes you come across.

2. Train yourself to look for patterns of failure

You’ll start noticing underlying patterns of failure when you start paying attention. Soon you’ll see that many failures are caused by the same mistakes, just in different disguises. Discovering these will open your eyes and allow you to more effectively avoid them.

For example, a frequent root cause of team failure is a lack of communication. As George Bernard Shaw said “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”

Doing this will make you more effective at avoiding failures and, make learning from them simpler. Finding patterns reduces the number of core reasons for failure to a few. Making it easier to fix these problems before they rear their ugly head.

3. Visualise what could go wrong

In our new world of visualisation and positive thinking we are repeatedly told to see everything going as well as it possibly could. This helps create desire and motivation, making it more likely we actually get the thing done.

However, if we spend all our time focusing on the positive, we spend no time planning for the negative. A few minutes of visualising problems that could appear, will save you from migraines later down the line.

Another reason to visualise failure, it can help you experience the worst that could happen and, helps dull you to it. Allowing you to stop worrying about it, as you’ll feel you’ve already been through it.

A study by Heather Kappes and Gabriele Oettingen suggests that visualising possible failures could even help increase energy and motivation to achieve results.

4. Don’t let it stop you proceeding

There’s no failure more vast than the failure to get started.

Yes, failure is a part of life. Yes, failure comes in many guises. Yes, some of them will be completely down to luck. But don’t let this stop you from getting out there and doing whatever you want to do.

Don’t get too caught up in analysing problems and never get to doing what you set out to. Set aside a small amount of time, say 30 minutes. Imagine how you could fail, make your plan and then, get on with producing. Having your list of root causes allows you to spend less time on this. And more time creating.

5. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking it won’t happen to you

When we get caught up doing something, we have a tendency to avoid contemplating the worst. Avoiding it all together, plowing ahead blindly. Even when all evidence points to the contrary. Before we know it, were in too deep, it’s too late to change anything, and we’re staring into the eyes of failure.

Don’t fall into this trap.

95% of all startups fail. Statistically then, you’re going to fail. Thing is a little research will show countless startups failing for the same few reasons. They didn’t spent the time thinking about failure, rushing to get their product out. A little time could’ve saved them from their eventual fate.

Planning can minimise these chances. Think about tackling the problems you could face head on. When they come up you’ll already know what to do, saving you valuable time. Burying your head in the sand wont make potential issues evaporate.

6. Accept it, failure’s a part of life

Failure happens. Even to the smartest, quickest, and luckiest of us. Look at some of the most successful people who have ever lived. The key is to not let failure get you down. Unfortunately, even with all the planning in the world you inevitably will fail at something. Accepting and moving forward is a critical skill the successful.

Take your own failures with a pinch of salt, successful people do. See them as a story you could one day tell in your biography. Reflect on them and learn the lessons to be learned. And maybe one day someone will avoid the mistake, because of the story you tell.