From Lemons to Lemonade:Squeeze Every Last Drop of Success Out of Your Mistakes

As General Colin Powell once explained, "There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure." The fact is that everyone fails some of the time. And everyone wants to learn from these failures. But learning from failure doesn't happen automatically. It requires very specific emotional and rational skills.

You will learn those skills in our summary of From Lemons to Lemonade: Squeeze Every Last Drop of Success Out of Your Mistakes, by Dean A. Shepherd. Shepherd is Professor of Entrepreneurship at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University and the editor, author, or co-author of eight books on entrepreneurship and strategy, including Entrepreneurship, a textbook now in its seventh edition.

Drawing on leading-edge research with hundreds of failing and successful entrepreneurs, Shepherd offers powerful strategies for managing the emotions generated by failure. As a result, failure will become less devastating, learning will happen faster, and you can grow as much as possible from the experience.

You'll learn how to clarify why you failed, so you can walk away with insights you can actually use; how to eliminate "secondary" stresses that aggravate failure or make it more likely; how to master the self-compassion you deserve in times of trouble; how to mourn failure faster, so you can learn from it sooner; when to "pull the plug" on a failure in progress; and much more.

Failing will never be easy or desirable. But this summary will make it less catastrophic, and more instructive, so you can get back to success, and get there fast.