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.
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| 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..).
