When you were a child did you ever have

A kaleidoscope? They still fascinate me today because with a simple flick of your hand you can create a whole new world.

You may not know but my husband Brendan who runs the company with me is an artist. One thing I realise now about artists is that they have a completely different way of looking at the world. And at the way we do things.

I love the Irish joke about someone asking for directions and when given them being told, "But if I were you I wouldn't start from here".

What's this got to do with running a business you might be wondering?

Well so often when we're stuck with a business problem it's because we keep on looking at it in the same way. And from the same position.

One technique you can try if you're stuck, and it works for personal problems as well, is to move physically. If you're sitting at a desk, then get up and go and sit on the other side of the desk. Sounds crazy I know but you literally are now looking at the problem from a different perspective.

You have flicked the kaleidoscope and suddenly another avenue of sight has opened up. To mix my metaphors up you can now see the wood from the trees.

I saw a great example of that when I interviewed Davide Berruto the CEO of Environment Furniture a company in Los Angeles making furniture from recycled materials. Having come into the furniture business from a different background his attitude was to move away from the traditional ways to market furniture and develop his own style. His company now has stores in Los Angeles, New York and Dublin and he supplies custom made furniture to the A list in Hollywood.

So instead of using the usual furniture marketing companies he employed artists to think about his marketing. One of his markers about working with people was - "Are they working for all the other furniture companies?" He knew that if so he wanted to get as far away from them as possible. Meeting people who have the courage to shift like that inspires me constantly. Because they take risks that most of us won't.

Last month at an NDE presentation I listened to two serial entrepreneurs talk about their attitudes to business. What came across from both Bob Pynegar and Derek Mapp was that the courage to take the risks and the acceptance that you will fail has to be part of your essential make-up as an entrepreneur.

When asked how many times they'd failed they both said that it was more than they succeeded. Failing faster is what's required. The nerve to jump in to try something, test it out and reject it if it doesn't work.

Here's to failing faster this month... in order to succeed.