How I Turned A Huge Business Setback Into A Success

How do you confront business failures and transform setbacks into opportunities? originally appeared on Quora: the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. 

Answer by Kara Goldin, Author of #Undaunted, Founder & CEO of HINT, Unstoppable Pod, in their Session: 

I’m pretty resistant to labeling anything a failure. In my new book, Undaunted, I talk about Hint’s partnership with Starbucks, and the sudden decision they made to remove us from their 10,000 stores (turned out that they needed to make room for higher-margin food items). That was a tough day, for sure. And a lot of people talk about failures as a way to learn and improve – that those lessons you learn are critical to building resilience. I definitely gained some important wisdom about the need to diversify our business that week – especially when faced with a sudden surplus of Hint product and nowhere to ship it.

While all that is true, I also know that embedded in every so-called “failure,” is a clear success. I don’t view my relationship with Starbucks as a failure. Even if I knew at the time how the partnership would ultimately turn out, I don’t know that I could have done anything to avoid our fate. And in retrospect, I wouldn’t change a thing. Here’s why: the exposure that Hint got from Starbucks was invaluable. They introduced us to consumers in every city and town across the country. Even though the partnership didn’t turn out the way I had planned, it would never erase that fact.

Actually, an Amazon buyer called me up a few days after the Starbucks deal was pulled, and told me he wanted to stock us in their online grocery store. He loved Hint and – guess what – he got hooked after he bought his first bottle at his local Starbucks.

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