Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Fail and Unlearn


The first time you meet an investor or hear them speak you might just be shocked to hear them say that your startup needs to fail, and fail fast. The cliché that 90% of all startups will not see the end of two years cannot be over emphasized. Failure is not necessarily a bad thing as long we learn from our mistakes (and others’) and move on swiftly.

Of all the ideas you think of and implement most will fail but will add some knowledge so that future ideas will stand a better chance. Here is where unlearning what you think or assume is true (when its not) comes in. Assumption is the mother of all blunders including yours. When a few facts are overlooked then you will keep failing until you realize what it is you don’t understand and either fix it or throw in the towel.

For example the first apple imac computers looked terrible and were a complete failure. Nobody hardly remembers that when they are fiddling with a macbook or ipad. The inventor kept on failing, quitting and going back. I personally remember once seeing three imacs (like the one in pic 2) one red, one blue and another yellow and thinking how stupid those things looked to me then. It’s now a fact that apple goods sell like hot cakes and Mr. failure is gloating from somewhere beyond the grave.


1984                                                                         1998                                                               2009


So the idea here is that when you fail you need to unlearn what you think is true and get some new education. Actually when I think about being an entrepreneur I see myself as a restless monkey with a loaded gun waiting to blast off opportunities. It’s time to fail, unlearn and relearn (and write shorter blog posts..).