Failure will help make your pharmacy better and stronger; it’s time to embrace it.
Want a highly successful pharmacy?
Start by embracing failure.
Running a pharmacy isn’t all smooth sailing, but here’s a hard truth: failure is your best teacher. One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned as a pharmacy owner is that embracing failure isn’t just important—it’s essential.
Yes, failure is uncomfortable, but it’s also where the growth happens.
Think about it.
We are wired as humans to learn from our mistakes. It’s how babies learn to talk and walk, and kids learn to ride a bike. We all understand that you must experience failure first before succeeding in those tasks. Yet, we often have trouble applying that wisdom to learning new tasks as adults.
Why are we willing to let a child fall off a bike a dozen times and encourage them to keep going, but when something in our business doesn’t go as planned the first time, we throw our hands up and give up?
The Value of Failure
Failure is often perceived as a negative outcome that needs to be avoided. In reality, it can be one of the most valuable experiences for personal and professional growth. When viewed through the right lens, failure becomes a powerful teacher, offering lessons that success simply cannot provide.
The truth is that failure pushes us to reassess, innovate, and get better. In the pharmacy world, where perfection is the gold standard for dispensing, it’s easy to fall into the trap of avoiding risks to dodge mistakes on the business side. But that mindset can be crippling. If you’re waiting for the perfect plan or the perfect moment, you’re missing out on the chance to learn, adapt, and grow.
I have found that this concept is difficult for the pharmacy world to adopt. That’s because the pharmacist hat that many of us wear is all about perfection. You don’t want mistakes as a pharmacist. However, the opposite is true for a pharmacy owner. You need to make mistakes in order to iterate faster and better, ultimately leading to successful strategies and tactics.
The Perfection Paradox
The perfectionist mindset, while essential in clinical practice, can be a double-edged sword when applied to business ownership. In the pharmacy world, we are conditioned to double-check, triple-check, and even quadruple-check our work. Mistakes can have serious consequences, so we strive for zero errors. But this approach, while critical in dispensing medications, can be crippling when applied to the broader aspects of running a pharmacy.
Perfectionism in business often leads to paralysis by analysis. You might find yourself overthinking every decision, fearing the possibility of making a wrong move. This fear can prevent you from taking the very actions that could propel your business forward. You might delay launching a new service, avoid experimenting with marketing strategies, or hesitate to expand your team—all because you’re waiting for the “perfect” moment, the “perfect” plan, or the “perfect” execution.
But here’s the truth: perfection doesn’t exist in the world of business. The market is constantly changing, and what worked yesterday might not work tomorrow. If you wait for perfection, you’ll miss out on opportunities to learn, adapt, and grow.
Uh-Oh, A Mistake?
What types of mistakes and failures are we talking about here? I’m not talking about clinical issues. I most definitely want you to dispense the right prescription to the right patient 100% of the time. While patient care thrives under perfection, embracing failure can lead to significant improvements in service delivery and business operations.
Failure can manifest in various forms during the journey of building a successful independent pharmacy. It could be a marketing campaign that didn’t yield the expected results, a new service that didn’t resonate with customers, or even challenges in team management. Each of these situations, while seemingly negative, offers valuable lessons.
From Setback to New Strategy
This process of turning setbacks into new strategies is what sets successful pharmacy owners apart from those who struggle. It’s not about avoiding failure but about using it as a tool for continuous improvement and learning.
Embracing failure doesn’t mean being reckless or careless—it means being resilient. It’s about understanding that setbacks are part of the journey and using them as stepping stones to success. Remember, it’s how we are wired to learn. Our brains will see mistakes and create new ways to solve problems.
If… we don’t give up!
Be Resilient & Create A Culture of Innovation
Resilience isn’t just about bouncing back from failure; it’s about growing stronger because of it. Each time you face a challenge and learn from it, you build the muscle of resilience. Over time, this makes you more adaptable, more innovative, and more capable of handling whatever comes your way. And in a field as dynamic as pharmacy, where you’re juggling patient care, business operations, and ever-changing regulations, resilience is one of your most valuable assets.
By shifting your mindset to see failure as an opportunity, you can create a culture of innovation within your pharmacy. Encourage your team to experiment, test new ideas, and approach challenges with curiosity rather than fear. When your staff sees that failure is not the end but rather a step towards improvement, they’ll be more willing to take initiative and contribute to the growth of your business. This kind of environment not only fosters creativity but also builds a more engaged and motivated team.
Innovation thrives in an environment where failure is accepted as part of the process. If your team knows they won’t be penalized for trying something new and it not working out, they’ll be more likely to think outside the box and come up with creative solutions to problems. This embracing failure doesn’t mean encouraging reckless behavior but rather fostering a mindset where calculated risks are valued and learning is prioritized.
The Path to Success
Ultimately, the key to success isn’t avoiding mistakes but learning from them and turning setbacks into setups for greater things. It’s about resilience—bouncing back from failure, learning the lessons, and applying them to make smarter decisions in the future.
So, the next time something doesn’t go as planned, remember: it’s not a setback; it’s a setup for something greater. Embrace failure, learn from it, and watch your pharmacy thrive in ways you never thought possible.
If you’re ready to take your pharmacy to the next level and want to learn how to turn these setbacks into setups, then you can’t afford to miss the Pharmacy Profit Summit. Join us, and let’s turn your challenges into your greatest opportunities for success!
