I am seeing a flurry of activity among the tech blogs who’ve caught on a interesting topic to latch onto. Failed startups. If you ask me, I am not sure what the big fuss in this is about.
Birds fly. Fishes Swim. Deals Fall through and Startups Fail. This is the natural order of things. The only thing we can do is alleviate the chances of success for a startup by a small degree. We do not, neither can anyone assure anyone of success and failures totally. Heck, the Silicon valley, which is considered to be this rich ecosystem, has its fair share of failures. What are we going to do about that?
“Success is one in a million. There is a very small chance that you could be that one and the obvious choice left is to fail. Are you ready for that?†is what my mentor used to ask me. For the first six and a half months, as I was pursuing him to be my mentor, every single book he gave me was on this amazing idea, great execution which went nowhere and resulted in a failed business. I used to think what was the point he was trying to make there. It was simple. Success in a startup is an anamoly. The natural route is failure. If there is one breed of people who can dare change that, it would be an entrepreneur. Yet there are factors and choices beyond our control which all contribute against it.
I remember talking to some students a few months back and the question kept going back to the concept of failing. How do you mitigate that risk and all that. I thought it was one of the profound and mature audiences that I had dealt with. I don’t even get some of those question at Proto.in*, where startups are on a much progressive stage. I am hoping that they already know the answers to that.
Most of the startups that are slowly gaining traction are on an average on their third iteration. Most companies that come to Proto.in themselves are on their second iteration. It’s quite obvious when you talk to them and see how they have evolved their offering based on market interaction. It is that iteration which actually is the strength of a startup. Remember Agile, evolving, and the path towards a “complete†product? It’s all part and parcel of that.
There is this interesting session that happens when you learn how to skate – whether on ice or on inlines. The first thing you learn is how to fall. How to fall gracefully is the next step. If you are afraid of failure, You wouldn’t even move a step ahead. You need to dare, and that’s what entrepreneurship essentially is all about. There is a high level of risk and high level of reward at the end. Not everyone who get a lottery wins, and not everyone who starts up a company also succeeds. I am not sure what is news about it.
As long as you are afraid of falling, you won’t be able to stand up on your feet either. I can assure you that. I’ll leave you with these following words, which we had posted on a high banner for the first edition of Proto.in. Perhaps it needs to be much more visible, perhaps even everyday:
It’s not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or when the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worth cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who at the worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat. – Theodore Roosevelt
*The Author is the Founding Member of Proto.in
- Launching an Experiment to Spot Problems Worth Solving - November 2, 2015
- Introducing In50hrs Healthcare Edition - May 14, 2014
- Ideas Pitched / Prototyped at In50hrs Pune 5 - September 16, 2013
There is more to learn in failure than in success. (Because when you read about success, you rarely if ever see lady luck honoured. You will hear about the hard work, the late nights, but who can’t replicate that)
The most fascinating tales I’ve read: Boohoo, a book about the phenomenal failure of boo.com, which supposedly triggered the .com bust.
[Most of the following are related to the stock markets, but are good reads anyhow]
Conspiracy of fools – a book on Enron and how it fell apart.
Confessions of a Wall Street Analyst: How the worldcom/global crossing fiascos were abetted and prodded by the analyst world.
Barbarians at the Gate – about RJR Nabisco, Liar’s Poker about the IBanks, Bull (Maggie Mahar) about the .com bust, hajaar books about LTCM – all books about fairly large failures or those that were soon going to be. Another interesting book, a predictor of sorts of the subprime crisis without really saying so – Traders, Guns and Money by Satyajit Das.
It’s one thing to read and say “that won’t happen to me”. But you soon realise that you don’t have any control over the events that can lead to your failure. You can only control your reaction to them. Which may not affect the impact at all.
And sometimes, when the odds are stacked against you, it’s more rewarding to let something go, change the idea or simply, put a tick mark against the “failed” box and move on. (I say that. Yet, there seem to be more companies in perennial inertia than I can count)
About discussing failure: Perhaps we underestimate the rewarding pleasure of schadenfreude, after all the sun, moon and glory promised by the now-distressed-startups.
VIjay,
Failure and success is sort of comparative analysis from the environment you live in.
It is all about passion to work on your own ideas….that’s it…..i do’nt see failure or success….i see no option situation…..where you do’nt have option other then working on ideas……otherwise you have to work like slave in any MNC….with non-sense people.
Virat Khutal
Very informative post! Good job.
The most important thing I have learnt about startups(not specifically Tech startups) from books/blogs is that it is hard work and a majority of them don’t succeed.
When I joined a startup a few weeks ago, some of my friends already started calling me a future millionaire! I had to explain that most startups don’t succeed.
I think this fact is hidden from casual onlookers because those few startups which hit gold take all the attention.
Vijay has rightly put it when he says- “The first thing you learn is how to fall. How to fall gracefully is the next step. If you are afraid of failure, You wouldn’t even move a step ahead. You need to dare, and that’s what entrepreneurship essentially is all about.”
I am reminded of the series of its failed products – some ahead of its time some total rubbish. I am talking about Newton. It took six years for Apple to realise that it had to abandon.
The point I am making is simple – You do not drown because you fall in water, but you stay in it. You need to learn fom failures and use that learning to succeed.
Human history is replete with examples of failure. Successes are few and rare. I just remembered the famous Emerson Quote-
Men succeed when they realize that their failures are the preparation for their victories. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
Vijay,
Allow me a smile 🙂
Why the fuss about startup failure? I guess it’s the sound of a maturing ecosystem that talks evenly about failures as much as it does about successes. Have you noticed the shrill is coming from the now senior (previously brilliant young entrepreneurs) quarters?
Bill Gates – the startup moniker, is now a geezer himself; is about to retire and as wisdom dawns, begins to sound like a dad. Not surprising.
Times have changed, so has the language. The startup steam also got decanted by “Google entering your field†whisper. After all, there’s been no major hit after 2004, when Google had its IPO. Facebook is losing a million $ a day and a Yahoo! in death bed and Jerry Yang is too weak even to stir to a 62% premium offer from MSFT. Where is the magic now?
Earlier when it had all been a haze, a few spectacular start-up successes got a disproportionately wider media mileage and attention than the large no.of failures. The outcome – at least in blogosphere – has been endless debates of agility of youth upstaging deliberative wisdom of seniority and experience. When the series of startup hits grew longer, the seniors of olden days held back their own beliefs and merely wondered in amazement. They backed off even before the arguments began. Youngsters just reveled in morose glee.
So the present day geezers know what it is like to be on the other side. Now when they are no longer young, they’re bitching. Ironically, what aids their slouch and smugness is that you’ve got nothing of the kind (like they had while they were of your age) to out-bitch them 🙂