As a marketing entrepreneur, I frequently deal with business owners and entrepreneurs who are struggling to make it and fear they will fail. Nobody starts a business thinking it will fail, but many do. Often failure is an essential part of ultimately achieving success. Many of the most accomplished business people we know have failed repeatedly on their path to success. So why do we dread failing? What is failure, really? And why is it so important?

Recently I had a special guest on my podcast, Rana Gujral. Rana, an extraordinarily successful and talented engineer, entrepreneur and writer for many of the entrepreneurial sites, was recently noted as one of Huffington Post’s Top 10 Entrepreneurs. His career just about anyone would envy, however, he is also very well-acquainted with failure. In an exclusive interview with Rana, he explores the concept of failure, what it really means to fail and how it can actually be beneficial to your career.