Below is an article by David Sebo, an entrepreneur, advisor and project designer . Failure especially in business is a global challenge, it is not synonymous with a particular ethnicity or locale. The great thing about Failure is, it is not a destination. You have the opportunity and grace to rise up and continue the race. I shared a quote on Monday for the Monday Motivation which states that "Winning cannot become your habit unless defeats have torn you apart and you sit in the battle field stitching back yourself one piece at a time laughing in the faces of all defeats.”
I am sharing this for knowledge's sake.. and I hope we (myself included) will learn a bit or two from this nuggets of wisdom.
Enjoy..
" In the last few months, my life was dominated by the fact that my business, which I’ve been building for four years failed. In this post I’m trying to pick up a few pieces of insight that might be useful for others.
Momentum (formerly known as Brandvee) was the product of two 20something guys wanting to do some stuff with software and marketing. No mission to save the world or passion to solve a particular problem. We just loved messing with data and solving puzzles. But that didn’t stop us from becoming super passionate about it and doing whatever it takes.
Eventually we raised funds, got into an accelerator, moved to London and started working with huge companies. It was an amazing experience, we’ve felt we’re on the top of the world. However we weren’t profitable and we ran out of cash before we could figure out how to be one.
So here are the three key takeaways of the last four years
Businesses fail, people don’t
I used to subscribe to the idea that in order to succeed one has to obsess over the business, like there’s nothing else. One of my first investors used to joke about us being the team where you add pizza and get a product.
This leads to a frog in a pan situation, one that only leads to happy end if you actually succeed against all odds. The other 99% of the time you’ll end up being an emotional wreck as I was. Laying in a catatonic state for days after a mental breakdown, one for which I’m far too young at 26.
Once I recovered in the following months (thanks to my family and a great therapist) I realised that I became a social hermit without friends or any hobbies and had no money.
We tried to get shit done on a bad market while we were learning how to be an okay team and burnt out in the process.
So no, it’s not worth it, business is the means not the end. If you’re an entrepreneur, you will go through this too at some point. So prepare for the storm because it is coming for you. Businesses fail, people don’t.
Solve real problems and make money
I think the hardest part of this is developing a no bullshit attitude. Entrepreneurs are scientists and the real world is their lab. As CEO I should’ve had my hands on the killswitch at all times from day one and start every day by asking if we should stop.
It’s not about being pessimistic, it’s about trying to disprove what we think about the world. Yes, there are people who can stick to their reality distortion fields and the world will go where they say.
The rest of us have to stick to the next best thing which is cash. Solve real problems and make cash. It’s really that simple, but all the hype makes it look like it’s complicated.
This is also true about fundraising. Always try not to raise funds. They’re not there to make you successful, that’s your job.
Stay humble and use logic
I’ve started this very young so I had no previous experience on how companies actually work. Over the last few years I have shipped many products, led successful fundraising rounds and managed to get the best out of our quite diverse team. I’ve also learned my way in the C-suite and gained experience in building a business.
I’ve also made more mistakes than I could count. Since clarity is easier to achieve when you’re in trouble, most of these mistakes were made when we were doing great. You experience some success, gets in your head and you think you’re invulnerable. Recipe for disaster.
Personally, this journey was a very humbling experience. In the last four years I was constantly working on trying to improve the way I think. I will always be grateful that I had a fantastic coach to work on my ego and a great mentor who pointed out that advanced use of logic is the best friend of an entrepreneur.
I think it’s quite easy to become your own enemy. It’s important to realise that most of the time we just simply don’t know what we don’t know. So the best thing to do is to stay humble and use logic.
Finishing thoughts
Having the opportunity to reflect on this in the last three months turned me into a stoic of some sort which brought me peace and joy I almost forgot existed. And most importantly, I have learned to let go. Now I’m looking outwards.
Because there is a whole world out there. Sounds silly but I kind of need to rediscover it. I love product and SaaS so I’ll probably stick to it while I’m on the lookout for new opportunities. Probably I’ll play it safe for a while so I can put my life back together both personally and financially.
This chapter of my journey has been extraordinary. I am eternally grateful to all of you who put faith in me including colleagues, family and friends, as well as my investors — some of whom also became my mentors. Thank you for your trust and partnership and while I am truly sorry for not being able to deliver the results we all envisioned, I am glad that we had an opportunity to be a part of this together."
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