Entrepreneurial Secrets: Turn Setbacks Into Growth & Stop Being Afraid to Fail

[00:00:00] Announcer: Where entrepreneurs come to grow It's Passage to Profit with Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart. [00:00:06] Elizabeth Gearhart: And now it is time for Secrets of the Entrepreneurial Mind. First we'll go to Richard Curtis, literary agent, author, publishing authority and Author's Advocate website richard-curtis.com what is a secret you can share with our audience? [00:00:21] Richard Curtis: To me, the most important thing for an entrepreneur is, is not to be afraid. Not to be afraid of making mistakes, not to be afraid of the competition. There are innumerable dangers and you must be ready to face them, to adjust to them and to conquer them. [00:00:42] Richard Gearhart: Very, very true and very inspiring as well. [00:00:44] Elizabeth Gearhart: Rose Marie Iskowitz, Founder of Rise Cognitive Blueprint Rise cognitiveblueprint.com what's a secret you can share with our audience? [00:00:53] Rose Marie Iskowitz: Very much in line with what Richard said and also in line with my framework, which is setbacks and failures are not the end. They're part of the process. And that was a big one that I had to learn for myself. I could tell that I could no longer grow in what I was doing. I was no longer really shining and adding my best value because I wasn't making new strides and doing new and exciting things. Something went wrong. That doesn't mean it's over. It means regroup, pivot and figure it out. [00:01:33] Elizabeth Gearhart: Love that. That's so entrepreneurial. Yes. And Yidian Liu, co founder of Polygon Systems polygonsystems.com what's a secret you can share? [00:01:42] Yidian Liu: I think any business at the end is all about people. We're trying to create a product that will benefit people, people solving real world problems. And when we're dealing with our clients, it's also how can we best develop our strategies to make sure their pain points are being met. That's what I learned when I'm founding Polygon. [00:02:02] Elizabeth Gearhart: I think that's great advice too. And Richard Gearhart with Gearhart Law. [00:02:07] Richard Gearhart: Well, I think every problem that happens over and over and over again is usually a problem in the system. Somebody doesn't understand what they're supposed to be be doing or people aren't communicating in the right way. And so if it keeps happening again, it may not be helpful to point a finger at somebody that's making the mistake over and over again. You gotta look at the context in which they're working and then try to fix that and hopefully that will solve your problem. [00:02:35] Elizabeth Gearhart: Excellent advice. And for me, Elizabeth Gearhart with Gear Media Studios I feel like right now in 2026, and I think I'm guilty of this along with a lot of other people. We're getting to be AI lazy, which means instead of trying to think through solutions and think through things for ourselves first, we're just going straight to AI to ask it. And a lot of times what we come up with is so much better. And I think we all just kind of have to guard against that. You know, it's kind of like AI is like this giant bowl of ice cream and we're just keep going back and eating. Pretty soon we're going to be £500, right? So that's it for me. [00:03:14] Richard Gearhart: Bowl of ice cream. I think you're waiting for the show to wind down, which it is. So that's all for for us this week. If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to the podcast and leave a quick review. Also, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X and subscribe to our YouTube channel for bonus content. [00:03:31] Announcer: Learn more at passagetoprofitshow. Com.