The Failure Guy

Contemplating an entrepreneurial prototype

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The word entrepreneur is used so often in so many different contexts these days that pinning it down is virtually impossible.  Everyone has their own definition, and the one you adopt—or unconsciously accept—can determine your aspirations, dictate your behavior, and in some instances cause you to underperform or fail outright. It’s a classic self-fulfilling prophecy—you’re likely to get what you expect to get.

Among the many definitions of entrepreneur, six currently dominate the popular press, the how-to literature and business education—and loom large in the popular imagination. Each definition, in its own way, can be both empowering and pernicious. Here’s what to look out for:

Continue reading “How Your Definition Of Entrepreneur Can Limit Your Success – Forbes” →

Virgin Group founder Richard Branson shared the stage with Mahindra Group chairman Anand Mahindra at an interactive session in the city on Wednesday where the two business leaders discussed the recipe for entrepreneurial success. Mahindra, who spearheads one of India’s automobile majors, pointed out the importance of ‘failure capital’. Branson, meanwhile, pointed out that diversification is key to survival of businesses.

On failures in business, Mahindra said a businessman who had not experienced failure has not done business at all. “Look at your failure as capital… the question is, can you ever actually get up, just dust yourself off. And the phrase I created for myself is that I can prove that failure is capital… So I look at it as a wonderful piece of investment,” said Mahindra, whose net worth is reportedly over $1 billion.

Continue reading “Anand Mahindra, Richard Branson talk entrepreneurial success – The Financial Express” →

Paper Airplane Surprises would make a great band name. The combination of whimsy and imagination signals something intriguing ahead. It’s also a good name for a business.

Founded by the grade-school-aged children of entrepreneur Casey Putschoegl—herself the owner of 33Vincent, a business that connects and supports remote executive assistants—Paper Airplane Surprises offers consumers a customized paper airplane featuring a piece of candy tucked inside. Putschoegl’s children love candy and paper airplanes. Why not put them together?

Continue reading “Children’s Business Fair: an Exciting Game for Entrepreneurs Ages 4 and Up – Silicon Prairie News” →

December 4, 2019 6 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

To be a successful entrepreneur necessitates not only a strong drive and passion for the creation of novelty, but also a capacity for overcoming adversity. But adversity can come in many forms and can occur well before a passion for entrepreneurship emerges. For example, one common form of adversity experienced in adolescence is bullying, affecting approximately 20 percent of students between the ages of 12 and 18.

Although the negative consequences of bullying are extensive and can persist well into adulthood, some entrepreneurs have found that such negative experiences have had positive effects on their adult life, enabling them to be better equipped to handle and overcome the challenges they face in their own ventures.

Curious about the link between adolescent bullying and entrepreneurship, I recently sat down with Randy Ginsburg, author of Adversity to Advantage: How to Overcome Bullying & Find Entrepreneurial Success.

Below is an excerpt from our conversation.

Related: How a Bullied 16-Year-Old Entrepreneur Found His Way

Continue reading “Can Being Bullied Make You a More Successful Entrepreneur? – Entrepreneur” →

If you’re someone, like myself, who loves to follow inspirational pages on Instagram then you have definitely seen countless quotes about a very uncomfortable topic– failure.

It’s almost as if you’re reading the same thing over and over again, but written differently every time. The ole “failure makes you stronger” and “rejection is just the Universe redirecting you.” While these quotes are inspiring in the moment, when we actually experience failure in our real lives, we quickly find ourselves ready to throw in the towel and give it all up. However, for one entrepreneur, no amount of rejection or failure were enough to dissuade her from accomplishing her goal of establishing a successful legal startup.

In an interview with SWAAY, mompreneur Janine Sickmeyer talked about her experience in turning her disappointment into determination to build her business from the ground up. She began her career in the legal industry as a bankruptcy paralegal for a law firm in Columbus, Ohio. Over a period of time, Sickmeyer began craving the flexibility that came with being her own boss and later started her own virtual paralegal firm where she prepared bankruptcy documents online for attorneys all over the country. With over a decade of experience working in the legal industry, Sickmeyer realized there was room for a more efficient and intuitive way to meet the needs of her clients and legal professionals that the current, yet antiquated, methods were incapable of doing.

Continue reading “82 VC Rejections Later, This Mompreneur’s Startup Was Acquired By Fastcase – SWAAY” →

The top three factors that cause stress among entrepreneurs in India are monitoring and managing finances, workforce management, and persistent fear of failure, a study has found.

“Mental health and well-being is a critical challenge that has come under the spotlight with a number of organisations realising its value. The question of prime importance today is about the pressure building on the leaders of organisations,” said Harsh Mariwala, founder, Ascent Foundation and Mariwala Health Initiative (MHI), at the Annual Ascent Conclave 2019.

The study was jointly conducted by Ascent, a not-for-profit organisation, and MHI after it emerged that there was a severe deficiency in data measuring the unique factors that affect entrepreneurs, thus perpetuating a systemic negligence of their mental health.

As per the World Health Organization, one in four people in the world experience mental health issues.

Continue reading “‘Finances, fear of failure cause stress among entrepreneurs’ – The Hindu” →

Failure is a detour, not a dead-end street and here are tips by Willpower Harris, Motivational Teacher & Humanitarian on how you can push yourself to achieve the best

Here’s the difference between informative and unnecessary failure.

I live in the heart of Silicon Valley, where the main industry seems to be starting businesses. I’ve seen a lot of startups come and go – and I’ve started a few myself – so I’ve had quite an education. I’ve had friends who’ve started businesses they’ve built and sold for millions of dollars. But even more frequently, I’ve seen startups fail. As a result, I’ve learned quite a bit of what NOT to do if you want to succeed in your startup.

Of course, failing once in a startup is no shame. Most successful entrepreneurs have failed in the past, and they love to tell war stories of startups they worked on that failed. Indeed, I’ve had venture capitalists tell me they won’t fund entrepreneurs who haven’t experienced failure because they want them to “learn on someone else’s nickel.”

But while one failure is acceptable – perhaps desirable if you’ve learned from your mistakes – repeated failures are a sign you’re doing something wrong.

I’ve had the rare opportunity to observe someone who has had at least five failed startups. You can learn a lot – a whole lot – watching someone fail as frequently as he did. It wasn’t that he had bad ideas. Not at all. In fact, other entrepreneurs have later built successful businesses on the same ideas. So I’ve been able to see the kinds of business decisions, and the personality traits, that have almost inevitably led to his repeated fiascos.

Continue reading “7 surefire ways to fail in your startup – USA TODAY” →

My success as an entrepreneur has always defied logic. After all, there’s no way a small-town boy from rural Georgia should have been able to build a $25 million residential cleaning brand on a shoestring budget. Seriously, my grand opening day resulted in just $130 in revenue. I burned through almost all of my operating capital in the first two years. And probably more importantly than anything else, I had never once actually cleaned a home prior to starting the business. I was set up to fail but didn’t. What was my secret? How did it happen? I’ve thought about those questions often over the years and believe that I finally have the real answer. My success, believe it or not, is a direct result of failure.

Entrepreneurial miracles rarely happen. Instead, most successful businesses are built on years and years of failed ideas that never make it into the news. Just ask Fred Smith, the founder FedEx. Fred’s first taste of failure occurred as a student at Yale. He wrote an economics paper on the need for reliable overnight delivery in a computerized information age, and his Ivy League professor responded, “The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a ‘C’, the idea must be feasible.” Later on, Fred flirted with bankruptcy after fuel prices almost sunk the company. Of course, we all know that he would go on to build a highly successful global company. Most successful entrepreneurs I know not only embrace failure, but they actually want to fail. Here are three reasons why you should also want to fail inside your own business.

Continue reading “Three Reasons Why Visionary Entrepreneurs Should Enjoy Failing – Forbes” →

Entrepreneurs starting new businesses is what drives the economy, innovation and job creation. However, about half of those new businesses fail in the first five years, and two out of three last less than a decade. So, how do you become one of the 33% of new businesses that last for the long haul? You do this by avoiding many of the common pitfalls that drive entrepreneurs out of business. Here is a look at 11 common reasons new businesses do not make it.

1. Not Having Enough Money

Let’s start with the simplest and most straightforward reason any business fails: lack of money. Whether they self-finance, get a bank loan or take the “Shark Tank” approach and get partners and investors, many businesses fail before really getting started because they are not prepared with the capital it takes to operate a new business.

2. Not Knowing Your Market

Who are your clients? Who is your competition? What is your target market willing to pay for your product or service? Entrepreneurs must be able to answer these and many more questions about their market in order to run a successful business. If you do not fully understand who your customers are, what they want and where else they can get it, you will be doomed to fail.

Continue reading “11 Reasons Why Most Entrepreneurs Fail – Forbes” →

Falling asleep is never the problem, says Tristan Watson. The exhaustion makes that easy. The problem is waking up — usually at around 3am. “Then you’re just lying there thinking about all the shit that is wrong and the difficult conversations you’re going to have to have. The people you might have to let go or whatever, thinking about how you will say it over and over: ‘I’m sorry, you have all put so much into this.’”

The life of the entrepreneur has never been so celebrated — or so commonplace. But rarely does the daily reality that most entrepreneurs battle with receive much attention: the work, the intense stress — and the inevitable failures.

Driven by the digital and e-commerce revolution, entrepreneurialism has boomed over the past decade. Whereas the average start-up in the US cost $5m to launch in 1999, it now costs just $50,000, recent research from Santa Monica-based Upfront Ventures found. The picture is similar in Europe, where London leads the way as a centre for entrepreneurship, according to European Commission data. The shift has been cultural as much as economic: entrepreneurs are now as feted on social media as they are by investors and governments. Instagram is awash with accounts and hashtags glamorising the venture lifestyle.

Externally, Watson’s business, Larderbox, a home delivery service for artisanal food products, was a model example of the new entrepreneurial wave. It featured in the New York Times Magazine, Vogue and Wired. It had big aspirations to change the way niche and luxury food products were sold. It had a large and loyal subscriber base. “But internally,” says Watson, “I knew it wasn’t going to work out as I’d hoped.” Too much equity had been given away to investors, Watson said, and the business no longer held the promise for him it once had. Running it had become a burden rather than an opportunity.

Continue reading “The failure taboo: entrepreneurs admit what happens when it all goes wrong – Financial Times” →

CBInsights analyzed 101 business failures to compile the top 10 reasons why entrepreneurs fail. From no market need to being too early, a lot of these issues can be avoided.