One of the mantras I often repeat is “If it’s not working, do something different”, but this doesn’t mean premature abandonment of a project that’s simply pausing for breath.

Any successful entrepreneur will tell you that you can’t survive in the role without being able to accept that failure is part of the course. Resilience – the ability to bounce back and start again – is an essential quality because failure and setback are unavoidable. It’s in the nature of doing something new and untried.

Resilience doesn’t just mean not giving up. It means accepting occasional dejection and rejection, learning from experience and finding the energy to have another go. Thomas Edison famously said, “I have not failed. I have just found ten thousand ways that won’t work.”

Ten thousand ‘failures’ may be a bit extreme, I hope your ideas see the light quicker then Edison’s. The main point is, lose the fear and learn to reframe ‘failure’ as a useful step on the journey. While you’re waiting for that big success, you’ll also be developing your resilience.

But persistence is also part of the mix for success. While it’s important to be able to accept failure and start again, it’s just as important to hang onto the dream so that you don’t give up when you should just be taking a breather.