Every success book, seminar or life coach out there can tell you that failure is just a stepping stone towards success. And they’re right. It is. But that simple piece of information won’t help you. Information
is power only when applied in real-life situations. In this case, that means being able to view failure for what it really is: feedback.
You then simply extract different lessons from that feedback and
you’re on your way to success. That sounds easier than it really is.
Everybody gets caught up in the day-to-day drama of work, family or
friends. It’s easy to forget the basic rules and feel like a failure after something doesn’t work out, especially in business.
Failure Beats You Up
It’s the habitual first ‘instinct’ to feel disappointed in yourself when the start-up you’ve invested so much in fails. After such a defeat, you couldn’t care less about the mantra failure equals feedback that
those ‘success gurus’ keep chanting. It’s understandable. But let me
show you some real-life examples that will actually prove that that very
mantra is true.
Here are 5 giant entrepreneurial figures (whose net worth in total
comes in at around $90 billion or so) who didn’t succumb in the face of
early failure, but rather enjoyed and appreciated it for the lessons
heeded. And they aren’t afraid to admit it.
FunBug – Nick Woodman
Net Worth $1,750,000,000
Nick was a ‘B student’ during college and an avid surfer, a hobby
which often times interfered with his studies. He wasn’t born a
billionaire. Before creating the now wildly successful brand of wearable
cameras – GoPro, he failed in great style with two online startups during the crazed dotcom bubble of 2000.
The Failures
First, he created EmpowerAll.com,
an e-commerce site aimed at a young demographic which sold very cheap
electronics. The company didn’t make any profit, so it was quickly shut
down. That didn’t drive our future billionaire out of the business
arena; it drove him to try harder, so in 1999 he set up FunBug, an
online marketing company.
The site gave users the chance to win cash prizes in return for
participating in sweepstakes. It was marketing through games. He even
managed to raise $3.9 million in funding from different investors. The
company was on the rise, but by 2001, Nick had to admit failure once
again. He wasn’t able to create a sustainable user base from which to drive profit via the companies he was marketing.
Here’s what he said to Forbes about failing the second time and losing almost $4 million dollars:
"
I mean nobody likes to fail, but the worst thing was I lost my
investors’ money and these were people that believed in this young guy
that was passionate about this idea… you start to question: are my ideas
really good?"
The Lesson
After losing the second company, Nick cleared his head
by going on a surf trip, a long one. Once back, he started working on a
prototype for a camera which can be used by athletes: GoPro.
‘
I was so afraid that GoPro was going to go away like Funbug that
I would work my ass off. That’s what the first boom and bust did for
me. I was so scared that I would fail again that I was totally committed
to succeed.’
Only this time, there was no bust, only the boom. GoPro made him one
of the youngest billionaires in the world, and the owner of the fastest-growing camera company in America.
