Taking big risks can lead to big rewards, but risk can also lead to failure. Everyone fails sometimes. It can happen in a quiet way, like not getting that big order you were hoping for. Or it can feel like a big public disaster, like having a trendy magazine review your ecoconscious cosmetics line and call it a bust. Surviving those setbacks and learning to thrive after they happen is an art. Perservere. Learn from every mistake.

If you think of failure as a learning experience or an opportunity, nothing is really a failure. View your setbacks as small potholes in the road rather than impossible cliffs. Think of it this way: if you try something 10 times and then quit, you’ll never be able to say, “It took me eleven times, but then I got it right.” Let failure be your motivation for doing it better the next time. Learn from it, think about it, then move past it. It’s hard—but so is running a business, and you can do that.

So if you’re going to fail, do it. Admit it happened and figure out what you need to do differently next time. All great minds have faced rejection. All great products have had bugs—some small and some disastrous—that had to be worked out. In lots of cases, a mistake is just a puzzle that has to be solved. Think of setbacks as challenges and fire up your brain to meet them head-on and find an even better solution.

NELLIE MORRIS AND ALEX DOUWES (PURPOSE GENERATION) ON FAILURE.

Don’t be afraid of failure. We both took the approach that failure is a good thing. If it doesn’t work, it just motivates you to figure out a different way. We ran into a lot of walls at the beginning and people who didn’t believe in what we were doing. Fortunately we have families that were very supportive. They taught us to “try your hardest and never stop believing in yourself.” It’s important to us that our employees feel they can take risks.

Also, don’t be too hard on yourself, and avoid the comparison syndrome. It’s easy to focus on the people in the limelight who seemingly “have it all,” but the truth is that they probably don’t. A lot of it is show and tell. Besides, you have absolutely no control over their success; all you can control is where and how you choose to spend your energy and time. We’ve always been very stealthy and rarely promote ourselves or the business in a public forum. We believe the work should speak for itself. Delivering excellent outcomes for our clients is what makes it all worth it.

DEBBIE FUNG (YOGA TREE) ON TIMING.

There’s never a right moment. Our motto is “Ready, fire, then aim.” Fire first and refine it later. I don’t think we should miss opportunities that are time-sensitive. Because our industry is very transitional—we’re here to stay, but yoga is ongoing trend—we don’t want to refine ourselves into a formula, because by that time, we might have already missed an opportunity.

ALYSON GREENFIELD (TINDERBOX MUSIC FESTIVAL) ON SUCCESS.

People think there is a time or a place when you “get there.” Even Beyoncé is working her butt off. Madonna is working her butt off. The Loser’s Lounge has been running for 20 years, every one of their performers very, very accomplished. You are always still doing it. So there isn’t a moment when you just sit back and everyone wants to listen to what you have to say. People are still always doing the work and looking for thing they what to be involved in. It’s a never-ending thing—even if you have success. It’s also just life.

BUSINESS IDEAS THAT EVOLVED FROM MISTAKES

FAILURE IS YOUR FRIEND

POST-IT NOTES—Spencer Silver was trying to make strong glue and ended up with the lightly sticky substance that allows paper to stick and then easily peel away.

TOLL HOUSE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES—Ruth Wakefield, owner of the Toll House Inn, tried to substitute chocolate bits for baker’s chocolate. Instead of getting chocolate cookies, she created the iconic chip-laden version.

SCOTCHGARD—Patsy Sherman was trying to make rubber that wouldn’t break down when exposed to jet engine fuels and dropped the substance on her shoe. Over time, that spot stayed clean while the rest of her shoe got stained.

KELLOGG’S CORN FLAKES—John and Will Kellogg were trying to boil grain, but they left the pot on the stove for days, resulting in the stale cereal that became the crunchy corn flakes we know and love today.

YOUR INNER CRITIC

You’ve heard it many times. That little insidious voice whispering in your ear: You’re not smart enough. You don’t have what it takes. You said something stupid. You just embarrassed yourself. Sure, you succeeded, but you’re just fooling everyone.

Your inner critic can do a real number on you.

WE ALL HAVE DOUBTS. It would be strange and dangerous to feel confident all the time. A certain amount of doubt is a reality check. It’s a combination of humility and knowledge that none of us is fabulous 100 percent of the time. But that’s where the doubt should end. Endless self-criticism is a whole other ball game. Even if you’re just being self-deprecating when you say, “I’m such an idiot” or “All my ideas suck,” it would be pretty damaging if someone else began to believe that were true. Or if you yourself were to start believing it.

DEBBIE FUNG (YOGA TREE) ON FEAR.

You need to find the courage to take action in spite of fear, doubt, and worry. The thing that holds us back the most is conquering self-fear. For me, I still deal with it on an ongoing basis. Every time I want to move ahead, there’s a little voice that overanalyzes all the little things that can go wrong. It’s still an ongoing struggle to turn that little voice down. You have to let it give you that sense of curiousness but not let it overrun you.

JULIETTE BRINDAK BLAKE (MISS O AND FRIENDS) ON PERSPECTIVE.

If I get a comment from a parent like “You really helped my daughter through this awful time in her life, thank you so much,” I think, Okay, this is why I’m doing this. It puts it back into perspective for me, why I actually started this, and what the point was to start it and to be there for girls in middle school going through a hard time.

FILL YOURSELF WITH POSITIVE THOUGHTS. There’s enough negativity out there to pummel you down regularly and keep your ego in check, so don’t go around looking for it or, worse yet, create your own. Surround yourself with a network of positive role models and your own group of pals who regularly boost your self-esteem.

Send your inner critic into hiding. Rewrite the dialogue. Bloom. Change something about the world. And go kick some ass, Boss. Start today.

GOOD LUCK. YOU’VE GOT THIS.