Reasons for Failure

Ted

Hi! Am answering your posting that went onto the Career Development forum originally.

Well, there could be a number of reasons why you first 3 attempts at starting your own company failed. Some could be to do with having Aspergers; others as a result of business issues that impact on everyone.

To take the latter first. Have you researched with your customers why they didn't take to the businesses? This, and not having researched the market initially effectively, could well be two key components.

If this is the case, then these are issues which should be relatively easy to address - if not automatically overcome - going forward.

The other issues that you mentioned are connected with Asperger and may take longer to resolve satisfactorily: reading between the lines and ascertaining hidden agendas; trusting others too much and; difficulty cultivating business relationships.

The first issue can, I think, really only come with experience via "doing it". I have become more adept at identifying hidden agendas through experience: this has taught me that, ultimately, people will always look after themselves. I personally always look at people and ask what their motives are on a continual basis. This usually gives a reasonable steer!

Trusting others is something I have found harder to overcome, as it is innate for someone with Asperger syndrome. I think that this is a really hard issue to address because we [people with AS] are not programmed to want to be distrustful; its totally against out nature.

This impacts upon issue No.3: forming business relationships. These have got to be objective and devoid of altruism. As we are not pre-disposed towards doing this, this can be even harder.

For this reason, I think that we are largely unsuited to cut-throat types of business operation and may never be able to deliver that ruthless cutting edge that is required for ultimate success.

However, I think that it also depends on what type of business we run and what sector we operate in.

Many professions or business areas ARE geared towards helping others: running a set of retirement homes where service and caring for others is a prerequisite for commercial success; a training company that helps others succeed is another example.

Given that this type of business requires skills and motivations that do appeal to the Asperger personality and related character traits, they could be better sectors to operate in. They will, therefore, work for, not against, achieving business success.

It would help if you could say what industries your businesses operated in. Were they all in the video sector? If so, you may need to bring in outside skills that you lack; a hard nosed sales operator for example?