DISQUS

JLM · 6 months ago

"Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan 'Press On' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.

Calvin Coolidge (1872 - 1933)

Most things we do in life are really "mid-term" grades but we take them way too seriously and sometimes the cost is meaningful. The real challenge is to keep on "experimenting" until you get it right.

I suspect that there are only about 0.0001% of the people on this planet who really take a meaningful risk with their own resources --- not OPM, their own resources. That is why entrepreneurs and those who "enable" them are so important to America just now. Our gene pool is drawn from folks who braved the most dangerous sea voyage to get here --- a reason why we should encourage immigration even today.

Anybody who has not failed gloriously, has really not lived and has never really tested themselves.

Keep on experimenting. Great comment, Fred!

fredwilson · 6 months ago

JLM - you are the real deal. It makes my day to see you show up at AVC

JLM · 6 months ago

Fred ---

I have been missing in action as I have been spending time in Mytle Beach, SC and Highlands-Cashiers, NC. I am sure you know these places, if not, then you should go there. Simply delightful, great water, great waterfalls, fabulous golf courses and exquisite restaurants.

Highlands is the Vail of Atlanta (2 1/2 hours away) with temperatures about 25F lower than Atlanta. It is in the Appalachians and is quite delightful. I ran into Chief Justice Roberts hanging out at the Old Edwards Inn in Highlands.

Here's the big message: I have never seen cheaper resort real estate in my life --- both in Myrtle and Highlands. These are once in a century buying opportunities. You can buy superlative, high quality mountain resort real estate for $100-125/SF on fairly large pieces of land, mountain views, golf course locations --- and you can get a waterfall for just a bit more. I am going to buy a waterfall.

Property bought at these prices in the $4-800,000 price range will double in value in less than 8 years as the market recovers.

Hope you are well.

fredwilson · 6 months ago

if i'm gonna buy resort real estate this year, and i just might, it's going to be somewhere my family and i can ski

JLM · 6 months ago

Take a look at Steamboat Springs in NW Colorado. Great snow. I have owned a place there for a long time. Prices are down 30-40% on the right type of units.

Skiing is the greatest family vacation ever. My kids learned to ski very, very young and they are monsters now. When they were in college, they had the entire fraternity/sorority out there and it was a world class memory and a blast.

The only downside to skiing is how expensive it has become --- $100/day.

Do it now, don't wait. The snow will be great in about 90 days.

Dave Pinsen · 6 months ago

"My kids learned to ski very, very young"

That seems to be the perfect time to learn: they're small and flexible, and probably are a lot less likely to get hurt than an adult.

JLM · 6 months ago

They have a smaller distance to fall, they have green twig bones and they get to eat beanie weenie @ lunch time. Plus their parents get to ski without them. Unfortunately, in just a couple of years they are skiing their parents' butts off!

fredwilson · 6 months ago

I can still keep up with mine in the bumps, trees, and poweder. I hope I can do that twenty years from now

fredwilson · 6 months ago

I love steamboat, especially the tree skiing up top. Only issue is its tough to get to from the east coast compared to the vaill valley or slc

JLM · 6 months ago

Agreed. There are now some direct flights into Hayden which is about 20 miles away.

egoboss · 6 months ago

http://www.sheffieldskivillage.co.uk/ski-village/

Just an idea ... :-)

fredwilson · 6 months ago

You crack me up carl

Keenan · 6 months ago

Fred, you know my take. Vail or Beaver Creek or nothing! :) Season is coming quick. Snow will be here before you know it.

Parkite · 6 months ago

I closed today on some property in Deer Valley area (Tuhaye / Talisker).

fredwilson · 6 months ago

Nice!

Dave Blanchard · 6 months ago

This is one of my favorite writings on productive failure from an old novel - the character is a sculptor (I think entrepreneurs are very similar at the end of the day).

"Every step I take – every bit of clay I ever touch – they’re all there in the final work. If they hadn’t happened, then this” – she gestured to the sculpture – “wouldn’t exist. In fact they had to happen for the work to emerge as it is. So in the end every major disaster, every tiny error, every wrong turning, every fragment of discarded clay, all the blood, sweat and tears – everything has meaning. I give it meaning. I reuse, reshape, recast all that goes wrong so that in the end nothing is wasted and nothing is without significance and nothing ceases to be precious to me.”

fredwilson · 6 months ago

awesome quote Dave
i love that art and business aren't so far apart

Dave Blanchard · 6 months ago

Yeah, that closeness is something we think about a lot at IDEO (I'm a Business Designer - the title says it all, hey?). Some of the best businesses pair the two - in fact my collegue Ryan calls "design the unholy alliance of art + commerce"...I love that.

ShanaC · 6 months ago

That is sexy. Very Sexy. I admire IDEO a lot. I wish you guys could spread what you do to startup land and internets. So much work to be done about what makes a product, exciting. Sorry. has to be said.

Dave Blanchard · 6 months ago

I wish for the same! (I was an entrepreneur in a former life) In fact, we're working on how we might best work with startups right now...it's a bit tricky but the design community typically loves the work when we've had the chance to do it. All advice taken!

ShanaC · 6 months ago

I'm an art student who kvetches about that on the internet. I try to see how the design works in the business plan thing (though I wish i knew the numbers).

There is so much work to be done...it's killing me. I would help just because. It's frustrating because I know I would need to intern to get the tech background (hurray for having time to intern!)


Email me shana dot carp ( a) gmail blah blah blah

I'm sure you can figure out the rest.

timraleigh · 6 months ago

There is also some interesting work/research being done in integrating "design thinking" and "business" (business design) integrative thinking at the Hasso-Plattner-Institute, at Stanford, Potsdam, and the Desautels Centre for Integrative Thinking at the Rotman school in Toronto among others. Roger Martin at Rotman and others are writing/researching about this emerging "discipline".

fredwilson · 6 months ago

I love it too

Carl Rahn Griffith · 6 months ago

Nice.

EQ is as important as IQ for any business to be successful.

Dave Pinsen · 6 months ago

Google and Microsoft have always been known for trying to screening for the highest IQ candidates they can find. I've never heard of businesses screening for EQ. Do you have an example of one?

egoboss · 6 months ago

Sadly, no.

Dave Pinsen · 6 months ago

Maybe that's because EQ (if there is such a thing) doesn't offer much of a competitive advantage in business.

egoboss · 6 months ago

Lol - come on, you know what I mean ;-)

Keenan · 6 months ago

Brilliant! The end is killer . . . "and nothing ceases to be precious to me".

Evan Rudowski · 6 months ago

If we are to wear our failures as badges I hope they're cloth badges because if they're metal I think I'd be clinking too much!

As for the UK (where I am an American expat) there are great entrepreneurial resources particularly in this sector. Also EO, the Entrepreneurs Organization, has been a fantastic resource for me -- I'm a member of its London chapter but it's global and very strong in the US. www.eonetwork.org

Which is my main point, in the UK or anywhere. Don't pay attention to all the people who would drag you down for failing. Chances are they've never taken a big risk themselves, so they are not entitled to have an opinion about you.

Instead hang out with people who know what it means to take a risk, who understand what it is like to try to do big things, and yes to sometimes fall short. They will cheer you on when you try, help pick you up when you fall short and encourage you not to give up.

You get to choose the company you keep, so hang out with winners and not with losers. "Winners" means attitude, not necessarily accomplishment, although they tend to go hand-in-hand.

Best wishes,
Evan

fredwilson · 6 months ago

I love the idea that a winner is someone with a winning attitude. So true

Ivan Kirigin · 6 months ago

That is dangerously close to the infantilizing trend of calling everyone a winner just for playing. You're more likely to win with a winning attitude - that is certainly true and important. You're not a winner if you didn't, you know, win.

Evan Rudowski · 6 months ago

Ivan,

Everybody has their own definition of winning. For some it's taking a company public and making lots of money, and for others it's having the freedom to spend more time with their kids.

Since I cannot judge other people by my personal standards, I can only judge them by their attitude and by the way they present themselves. My point was that to help myself be successful, I want to spend time with people who feel successful themselves or who are excited by the pursuit of success. That makes them winners to me.

Best wishes,
Evan

Evan Rudowski · 6 months ago

Oh and two of my favorite quotes are:

"This thing we call "failure" is not the falling down, but the staying down." - Mary Pickford (a Canadian)

"When you're going through hell, keep going." - Sir Winston Churchill (a Brit)

Evan

fredwilson · 6 months ago

i love Churchill
he was wise and very quotable too

markslater · 6 months ago

'winston your drunk!'
'and you, my dear, are ugly'

'but in the morning i will be sober'

fredwilson · 6 months ago

Classic churchill

Sandy Traub · 6 months ago

Too bad I didn't discover Fred Wilson after I left IBM in the 80s. This thinking parallels to advice I've given from time to time: "Just because you've fallen in the ditch, doesn't mean you must stay there, or wallow in it. Get out! Brush yourself off. Take a shower. Start again, but keep moving."

David Gillespie · 6 months ago

I was doing a review of a (young but brilliant) guy on my team recently, and as we were discussing the feedback he said to me "You know, the thing I worry about more than anything is making mistakes."

I looked at him blankly and said "That is like fretting that the sun might come up tomorrow. Guess what? It's going to happen! Don't worry about making mistakes, worry about things you can actually have a positive impact on. If you spend your time worrying about the possibility of mistakes you're not going to get anything done."

Now, being Australian (living in Canada atm), there's a fair amount of a "no worries" attitude that is ingrained in us, but Fred I think you hit on something really crucial about the States - the fact that success is rewarded and if you fail you are encouraged to give it another go; as fortunate as I feel to be from Australia we don't have the latter as part of our psyche. I've benefited from tremendously from growing up in Hong Kong among other places, and I think a willingness to get it wrong is one of the best things any society can have in its DNA.

It's probably also the reason I'm a long way from home right now :)

fredwilson · 6 months ago

What other societies embrace failure like the US does?

ShanaC · 6 months ago

Israel a bit. Same interest in education to an extreme (If I am not mistaken, the last round of elections, one of the people for one of the top parties vying had staked her name in politics by writing the last major reports on education). Also the only place I've heard of with the following two cultural things:
Student protests and shutting down universities over raising the cost of college education (very heavily gov't stubsidies)
Annual book fairs in most major cities.

In some ways it is really similar with the embrace of failure = education. You need to have both.

Same sort of we'll try it and hope it works attitude. Of the Israelis that I am close with in the US and Israel (primarily the US) of those who've left, they seem burnt out by the dream, not that that dream has left at all. The political scene there seems very marked by it, for all of the corruption involved. I lived their briefly, I remember no matter what position you took (and everyone took one), you were always trying to work for some sort of best option. Even if you felt like there wasn't one. You had to try something, and you had to beleive in it.

It was really weird, because as an outsider (I was living in a really heavily Israeli environment during a moment of political upheaval), I never saw "You Must Try Something!" across the political spectrum everywhere in politics until the Obama election. Even odder, was despite how hot blooded everyone could be (and I remember meeting a lot of people), the end result to a point was that the majority of people thought, they could have done better. And now I am seeing that. So strange.

I guess that's why they have a very active tech community *shrug*

fredwilson · 6 months ago

I've often thought the two societies most like the US are India and Israel. I wonder if there's a culture of risk taking and acceptance of failure in India

egoboss · 6 months ago

Never done business in India but have done so in the recent past in Israel. Love it, and can see the parallels. Huge potential.

ShanaC · 6 months ago

Couldn't tell you. Though it's on my top places to visit, and I have a friend who just came back from India after studying sanskrit. Now I'm tempted to ask what he thinks.

Satish Mummareddy · 6 months ago

India didn't encourage risk taking and entrepreneurship till very recently. People in India like their kids to be Engineers & Doctors and work for big companies. To start businesses in India you needed to put in your own money by taking loans from family & friends. And when businesses failed most people hid or ran away. There is no concept of personal bankruptcy. They were looked down upon. There was no way to recover from a failure. Very few people recovered and made it in business after a failure. My dad started 4 private schools starting his first with $100 and built it into a 500 student school. When his 3rd school with partners failed he spent 3 years paying up the debts from profits in his first school. There were fewer stories like my Dad 30 years ago. Only rich people started businesses.
India is changing rapidly due to the large # of Indians who studied in the US and were successful here returning back and taking the culture of entrepreneurship back with them. Recently a high school class mate of mine who did an MS at U Wash and worked at a startup in DC for 4 years moved back to India to start his own company. There are a huge number of such stories now. To summarize US is exporting the culture to India.

Satish Mummareddy · 6 months ago

Adding a little more here, in the past in India two types of people started businesses:
1) Trade smiths / Professional Services : Carpenters, Electricians, plumbers, hair cutters, cooks (who sold food on streets), mom & pop grocery stores etc.
2) Rich People

The educated middle class stayed out of starting businesses. They went to work for a BigCo. Now that is changing fast.

Dave Pinsen · 6 months ago

Generally, overseas Indians have been more entrepreneurial though, right? Mohnish Pabrai wrote about some examples in his book The Dhando Investor -- e.g., the group that basically took over the motel industry in the U.S. after getting evicted from Uganda by Idi Amin.

This seems consistent with your observation about Indian-Americans exporting an entrepreneurship culture back to India. Probably a similar thing is happening with Israel.

Voottoochief · 6 months ago

Before the 1990s - Indian markets were fairly protected and closed, the credit marketplace and capital for business was limited, the bureaucracy Raj was suffocating....

Basically the cost of failing in a risky venture was ridiculously high - it basically stamped out any entrepreneurship, especially for the common person. Therefore the tendency to push kids into either Engineering or Medicine - some way to be able to make a living.

For some of us growing up in India and going through the beaten path of engineering - what we missed, and realized much later in B-School in the US - was that we'd had not even the basics of Economics and Finance in high school or college. Those were the ill effects of past protectionism.

Luckily, now - the pent up entrepreneurial zeal is bursting at the seams and the free flow of ideas and people between the US and India is the source of real wealth creation.

fredwilson · 6 months ago

That's so great to hear. Many people in the US fret that we are exporting our competitive advantages but I don't. I wish there were more societies on planet earth where freedom, risk taking, and democracy define the culture

JLM · 6 months ago

Three interesting things about Israel ---

First, universal military service which creates a common sense of skin in the game. Even if you don't want to play THAT game.

Second, Israel cannot lose the first battle of the next war because they do not have enough land mass to absorb the defeat.

Third, the suffering of the European Jews has left an indelible mark on its nationalism which is unequaled.

I will be very interested to see what happens with Iran. I am taking the "under" on six months for bombs away!

Dave Pinsen · 6 months ago

Is there any chance Iran wants to get bombed by Israel? It would most likely drive up prices for Iran's number one export, for starters, and it would probably take a lot of domestic political pressure off of Iran's government by giving it a foreign enemy to rally against. Of course, if it eliminates a nuclear threat, Israel may still consider launching an attack anyway, but the logistics of a successful attack seem pretty daunting.

JLM · 6 months ago

The Israelis can launch a successful attack at a 99% confidence level just now and they have already rehearsed it. I suspect they will get American help (airspace over Iraq and maybe landing rights) in the end. The Israelis do not have to hit the actual nuclear facilities, they can just knock out the power, bridges, computers, infrastructure. They will wipe the Iranian air force from the skies in the first 30 minutes of the engagement. In a funny way, the elimination of Iran as a boil on the Middle East's butt will make the markets more serene and settled thereafter.

Dave Pinsen · 6 months ago

"The Israelis can launch a successful attack at a 99% confidence level just now"

What are you basing this on? Just curious.

JLM · 6 months ago

Schoolmate of mine is former AF C of S and red hot fighter jock. Relying on public info only, no US classified info, it looks like:

Do they have the political will?
Is the public supportive?
Do they have the planning capability?
Do they have the AWACs capability?
Do they have the right planes, including tankers for refueling?
Do they have the right pilots?
Do they have the right ordnance?
Do they have the right target list --- primary (accelerators, assembly, manufacturing sites) and secondary (power, scientists, transportation, launch pads)?
Can they refuel on the way in without being detected?
Can they control the skies at TOT (time on target)?
Can they decapitate the leadership, knock out ECM (electronic counter measures), jam the communication net and take out the ground radar?
Can they hit the targets?
Can they execute instantaneous BDM (bomb damage assessment)?
Can they mount a second raid, if necessary?
Can they withstand the poltical and military fallout?
Are they feeling lucky?
Are they out of alternatives?

When everything comes up YES, then it is "go" time. We are getting pretty close to go time.

Remember they took out the Iraqi reactor when Saddam was the bad boy of the neighborhood and they recently took away Syria's NK nuclear play toys.

They have already rehearsed the flight duration and refueling intricacies over the Med. It would not surprise me if they took it out while Mahmoud was at the UN with Obama.

markslater · 6 months ago

how about this one

is it right?

catchmikey · 6 months ago

Failure opens your mind to a whole new world of thinking goes perfectly with the saying, "What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger."

Thanks!

abhic · 6 months ago

I couldn't agree more. I think this is the reason that some centers emerge as hotbeds of innovation, cause innovation brings more failures than successes and these centers allow that freedom to experiment and 'tinker around' (as Vinod Khosla puts it). One of the reasons that the valley = The Valley.

fredwilson · 6 months ago

and why NYC is becoming such a startup hub. NYC has embraced failure since it was called New Amsterdam

Carl Rahn Griffith · 6 months ago

Maybe the UK will 'get' this mindset, one day. Maybe ....

andrewwatson · 6 months ago

That's one of the biggest differences, in my experience, between the US and continental Europe. I didn't realize the UK was the same way. I talked to entrepreneurs in France and they told me it was very risky leaving your big corporate job to start something because failure had a huge stigma. That and starting a small business in France is not a trivial exercise...

The ability to pick yourself up, knock the dust off and try again is an American Hallmark.

farhanlalji · 6 months ago

I think that's why a lot of American VCs are finding good deals in Europe, because the traditional investors are overlooking quality potential markets and entrepreneurs. Think the UK is getting their though, and things like Seedcamp, and other innovative investment vehicles are helping. Funny thing is a lot of it is being driven by American expats or American educated folks in the UK. Look at the VCs and other investors and you see big US schools or brands all over the place.

fredwilson · 6 months ago

That's good. The US is exporting our entepreneurial model to the rest of the world. Its a good model

fredwilson · 6 months ago

That's good. The US is exporting our entepreneurial model to the rest of the world. Its a good model

JLM · 6 months ago

In some manner, didn't the UK send all of its brightest and most adventurous folks out to its colonies? [With a bunch of prisoners thrown into the bargain? Did you know that more English prisoners were sent to the Colonies than to Australia?]

RichardForster · 6 months ago

...funny how the roles have been reversed it is almost impossible for someone in the UK to emigrate to either the US or Australia at the moment.

markslater · 6 months ago

very true

Carl Rahn Griffith · 6 months ago

Absolutely. Very ironic. Back in 2002 even just my L1 Visa took some 6+ months to process, countless paperwork processes (with a company sponsorship), plus a harrowing wait/interview at the USA Embassy in London.

Don't even start me on what happened at the USA Embassy in London some months later when my fiance wanted to join me for a few months, towards the end of my initial visa period ... suffice to say our plans/lives became well and truly screwed up as a result.

Funny old life.

fredwilson · 6 months ago

That's terrible

Carl Rahn Griffith · 6 months ago

Can't begin to describe what it did to us, Fred. Crazy time. Was a real mess and all because we were above-board with the authorities. Helen could have easily come over for the standard guest visa period, gone home to the UK for a while then come back again but oh no, we decided to do things 'right' ... ah well ...

JLM · 6 months ago

It really is absurd. You can get an international approval for a credit card transaction in seconds, a gun permit in 2 days and you cannot get an immigration approval for months or years. It is silly.

What's even worse is that once you are in the country, they cannot find you to enforce the most basic immigration restrictions --- witness the fact that almost all of the 9-11 bombers had overstayed their authority.

I live in Texas, so next time you want to visit, let me know and I will sneak you across the border. Plus I will feed you some great Tex Mex and some BBQ.

Can you ride and rope or work cattle? LOL Just kidding!

The level of illegal immigration across the TX - Mexico border continues unabated except there are not as many jobs available in the construction trades.

Carl Rahn Griffith · 6 months ago

It is all rather absurd and we learnt a lot from the experience - not good lessons, really, but lessons nonetheless.

When I asked for advice about this farce, the immigration lawyer who did my own L1 visa explained that the drones one finds frequented at the USA embassies around the world - who control the lives of those applying for visas - relish their power (for all the wrong reasons) and get a perverse pleasure from screwing-up lives, at random, it seems. His words, not mine.

Anyway ...

I successfully did some cattle/sheep work when I was in the Australian desert - on a motorbike.

I did try doing it on a horse once, but that's a different story .... Cheers!

Tex Mex/BBQ sounds good .... ;-)

fredwilson · 6 months ago

JLM and egoboss hanging out eating tex mex and bbq? if that happens, i'm coming to join you guys. two of my favorite blog commenters!

Carl Rahn Griffith · 6 months ago

Good point/s, JLM.

Well, I left NYC (to return to the UK) in 2003 because of love. I left Australia in '88 because of a hernia. About right, I guess ;-)

Now here I am in sunny Yorkshire, wondering, 'what next?' (even at the grand old age of 49).

fredwilson · 6 months ago

What's next is SWFC in the premiership

Carl Rahn Griffith · 6 months ago

Anything IS possible! :-)

ShanaC · 6 months ago

Then you're normal. I'm wondering about a huge many of those types of things myself for the next few years. It's a journey and thank those involved.

I also once heard that decisions made through the gut are good ones. Especially if you have some analysis behind your choices, and you just aren't sure sure between them. If you can't find them, start looking.

Steven Kane · 6 months ago

Amen!

In a similar vein, I'd argue our (still-revolutionary) bankruptcy laws (which are called out in the US Constitution!) and resulting culture of failure acceptance and fresh starts, is one of the pillars of our unique american entrepreneurial socially-mobile culture

fredwilson · 6 months ago

those founding fathers sure got a lot right, didn't they?

Carl Rahn Griffith · 6 months ago

Well said.

As for the UK ...

farhanlalji · 6 months ago

Carl you need to stop dissing the UK and get on with things. Dust yourself off and move on. Getting a bit annoyed at all the UK/Euro bashing, need to stop, learn and implement to get on with change on this side of the pond.

Carl Rahn Griffith · 6 months ago

'Dissing' ...? Being objective, actually. There's a difference.

'Get on with things' ..? Been doing that for a few decades, thanks.

When you've seen a fair few friends burnt by our system, I wonder how benign you'd be?

farhanlalji · 6 months ago

That's exactly the point, there are tonnes of entrepreneurs getting burnt every day by the US system as well, but instead of harping on about its failures the system learns, innovates and moves on. Shakespeare wrote "O, woe is me, To have seen what I have seen, see what I see!"in 1603, but too many entreprenuers still use this outdated line.

Carl Rahn Griffith · 6 months ago

Well, thanks for the enlightenment.

Mark Essel · 6 months ago

A great argument is made of two sides that listen deeply. Unfortunately they can't all be great. Changing mind sets is probably the most challenging problem of social entrepreneurs. If I follow your sentiment, you may find some solace in what Robert Scoble shared about UK startups in his trip earlier this year.

There were some fantastic startups and founders flipping web tech on it's head.

markslater · 6 months ago

if you want a humurous dose of the different cultures of success and failure in the UK and the US - watch the dragons den on BBC America and then Sharks tank on CBS.

fredwilson · 6 months ago

Will do!

knackeredhack · 6 months ago

Mark, could you elaborate. Don't have access to CBS. How do you characterise the UK Dragons' Den?

Tim

egoboss · 6 months ago

Personally, the few times I have subjected myself to watching it, I find the UK Dragons Den to be facile and patronising. Hideous 'Dragons' 'personalities' and largely negative, being primarily a showcase for the Dragons boorish egos to parade themselves. Never seen the USA version - I'd hope it to be vastly different!

knackeredhack · 6 months ago

Hmm, kind of agree. My feeling is that the Dragons may make good TV, but it is not good business TV.

RichardForster · 6 months ago

I don't think Carl is dissing the UK, he's stating the fact that in the UK, failure is seen as a bad thing by a lot of people and I would concur. Of course there are some great entrepreneurs and companies in the UK that are getting on with it and actually if you have that attitude over here then you have a distinct advantage because you are in the minority.

Having said that the VC community in the UK is very small and does not have the variety of funds and personalities that the US scene would appear to have.

Carl Rahn Griffith · 6 months ago

Thanks, Richard - spot on.

farhanlalji · 6 months ago

I get the sentiment and maybe was jumping on Carl's remark a bit (sorry Carl, no offense). I'm sure there are still lots of people, VCs and institutions outside California and NYC who see failure as just failure in the US as well, but American's don't dwell on it, they move on.

My point is that over the 10 years I spent in the UK I saw a lot of progress. And it's continuing to grow, Last.fm, Lastminute, Spotify, Amadeus, Accel, Benchmark, Index + others and new entrants like Seedcamp, Profounders and other new funds show that it's definitely heading in the right direction.

Carl Rahn Griffith · 6 months ago

No problem, Farhan - emotive debate is great; it's always pretty civil here and long may it continue! ;-)

(In my opinion) one of the biggest problems in the UK is that we are (by our very nature) not critical enough of/aware of 'The System' - that's what concerns me.

Regarding the startup communities over here - yes, we are definitely heading in the right direction and it's great to see synergy developing between USA and UK/European VCs, incubators, startups, etc.

Via Twitter - more than any other medium - I have had dialogue with many interesting folks around the world regarding their own startup experiences, etc - we're finally getting to the 'global village' and this will help everyone better understand/adapt to/try and change the vagaries of the various 'systems' they work within.

Cheers!

William Mougayar · 6 months ago

Very true, but failure and mistakes are 2 different things. It takes some wisdom to learn from mistakes, but it takes more mental toughness to recover from failure.

JLM · 6 months ago

Doesn't it all depend on how much skin and whose skin you have in the game?

I can make a mistake with YOUR money but it is a failure with MY money, no? LOL <<< just joshing!

William Mougayar · 6 months ago

Every situation is different, but I'm putting myself as an entrepreneur, and my point is that- sometimes "Failure is not option".
(That's assuming this is after you've had a go at it, you've learned a few things, and already made a few mistakes along the way.)

bootload · 6 months ago

"... I think embracing failure is one of the things that makes this country such a great place to do business in. In many parts of the world, if you fail once, you are done. People won't touch you with a ten foot pole. But here in the US, it's almost a badge of honor. ..."

There are a lot of bad things publicised about the US, but the characteristics described above are probably the most admirable but least understood abroad.

In my country, Australia, doing business means avoiding failure at all costs. Even where risk is minimal. So you don't get the same type of crashes as you get in the US. But we also miss out on the spectacular successes. Embracing failure and learning from it is one of the admirable qualities in the US psyche worth adopting because the alternative isn't pretty. Avoiding failure makes you timid.

Avoidance of *any kind of failure* means you also sacrifice what makes you great.

Dave Pinsen · 6 months ago

I own a few shares of a tiny, innovative Aussie company, and its management has been risk averse in the sense that it has largely eschewed debt and grown from cash flow. That caution enabled the company to survive the global economic contraction and now they've landed a game-changing contract. Aussie fiscal conservatism for the win!

hmichaelharvey · 6 months ago

Good post. I am learning from my mistakes everyday.

theoldswank · 6 months ago

The key to this is the learning bit. It always gets overlooked.

Kevin Sablan · 6 months ago

Good point, Sean. Many of the most innovative people I've worked with have shared more than a few stories of ideas that simply didn't work for various reasons. The end of each story ended with "what that taught me was ..."

fredwilson · 6 months ago

we were doing that yesterday at our monthly partners breakfast. we spent most of the hour talking about stuff we've done that was wrong and what we should learn from it.

brandingme · 6 months ago

fred, seems like no one has asked the question yet: what is some wisdom you've gained from some specific failures you've made?

fredwilson · 6 months ago

Well that's a blog post in and of itself. But let's start with a good one. Don't get too big for your own britches. Stay humble and don't believe all the glowing stuff people write about you

markslater · 6 months ago

i've heard this bandied around alot recently. The notion that if you are going to 'fail' - do it quickly. did this come from you? i found this interesting

fredwilson · 6 months ago

Not me. But I tend to agree.

Keenan · 6 months ago

completely agree, I use this philosophy with my kids. It's a lot easier for my kids to make stupid mistakes early in life than to make them later when they have a family, career etc riding on the end results.

Pranav Bhasin · 6 months ago

Very true - am in the process of learning it the hard way :) Another thing that I learnt is that the fear of failure prevents you from doing things that you would do if you execute fearlessly. In most cases, that makes all the difference between success and failure.

fredwilson · 6 months ago

yup. fear of failure can really hold you back.

millarm · 6 months ago

fail often, and fail fast

Failure is a great teacher - so aim to fail often and fail fast. This keeps the failures small, and the learning great.

Fear of failure is a real barrier to innovation - if you might not fail, it's not worth doing

There are parts of the UK that do get this mindset - but culturally it's still challenging do be an entrepreneur in the UK - simply answering the question "what is your job?" get blank stares from people.

Matt - making small mistakes every day as steps to a big success

Anne McCrossan · 6 months ago

Great post Fred, thank you, and after all, continuous improvement depends on this. I hope the reiterative, formative experiential nature of open source social development and learning (and Obama'a lead) have the effect of encouraging commercial culture to embed a little self-questioning into the gung-ho of capitalism slightly more often.

JLM · 6 months ago

Capitalism --- unbridled, red-meat, testerone (ok, a bit of etrogen, too), bare knuckles, competitive capitalism --- has given us the highest standard of living in the world while delivering a safe and secure society.

With all of its excesses (I am on record championing the public execution of folks like Madoff, Boeske, et al), capitalism is still the best system for unlocking the potential of a people and delivering real increases in quality of life and the creation of wealth. There is really no "second place" ---ism to compete with it.

Socialism on the other hand is equally responsible for the dumbing down of its subjects and the theft of human potential while creating a miserable, mundane and boring existence for its despondent victims.

Exhibit One: East Germany and West Germany

Exhibit Two: Cuba before, during and after Fidel

I fear we will look back at some of the decisions made by this Administration and hope we can find a clinical, physical reason for their abject failure. GM, SEIU, AIG, Lehman, Porkulus, TARP, HASP, healthcare, Van Jones, etc.

Leadership? Obama? Hmmm, I think we are being lead by the Teleprompter in Chief.

This administration is making war on the most productive elements in our society while naively expecting them to step up and create jobs. Not gonna happen. Absent low interest rates, this is the worst business environment in the last 50 years (maybe excepting Jimmy Carter) --- however for contrarians like me it is going to be a great ride before it's all over.

andyswan · 6 months ago

Funny how the hippies always come out AFTER the wealth and prosperity has been created. The near-sightedness of redistributionist policies is mind-numbing.

Kicking the ladder down after you get to the top is NOT "compassionate"

JLM · 6 months ago

Hahaha, I love your second paragraph. I am going to steal it and start using it as if I had invented it. Plagiarism? GUILTY!

I have no problem with "redistribution". Just let me spend it, don't put a bayonet in my ribs. I promise to spend it. I promise!

There is smart and there is book smart and there is street smart and there is dumb.

It's like the debate about GITMO. My 92-year old Dad always says that real dangerous criminals should be kept on an island where they cannot escape into the populace and then be watched carefully and have their cases tried on the same island. Hmmmmm? So what is wrong w/ GITMO?

We are currently trending toward dumb!

andyswan · 6 months ago

Austrailia: the original gitmo!

fredwilson · 6 months ago

I think you are being a bit too hard on obama. First, he inherited a global financial meltdown and they threw the book at it to inspire confidence that your money wasn't going to be all gone. It worked. Now they have to get us off the dole and that will be hard but he knows it has to happen. Second, in his speech last night he was crystal clear that he vastly prefers a 'market based' approach to healthcare financing than a single payer model

I think he's way more of a capitalist than you are giving him credit for

JLM · 6 months ago

I am a bit too hard on everyone but that's my nature.

Frankly, I cannot find a single piece of evidence that President Obama is even modestly knowledgeable about capitalism let alone has enacted a policy which is supportive of capitalism. I am more concerned about his ignorance than I am his philosophy.

His rhetoric demonizes and makes war on capitalists.

The nonsense that the Stimulus was necessary to prevent unemployment from exceeding first 8% and then 8.5%; the tripe about jobs "created and saved" --- is empty, silly, pablum and platitudes packaged in a well spoken format to feed the masses. It is the thing of bread and circuses and "let them eat cake". It has no basis in reality and at best it betrays a hopeless naivete. The Stimulus was a frat boy food fight of gargantuan proportions.

I think he is a guy with a hidden agenda --- to which he is entirely entitled --- he won the election fair and square. He is the President.

I agree completely that he walked into a financial crisis but I am skeptical --- woefully skeptical --- that any of the actions taken by his predecessor or him are really what has stabilized the markets.

The simple fact that many of the banks have returned the TARP funding so quickly indicates it was not a critical ingredient in the stabilization.

It is difficult to see how a bit of "creative destruction" by allowing the failure of AIG, GM and a few of the banks --- a la Lehman --- might not have had the same result.

In the end, only results count! We shall measure the results and we shall see.

fredwilson · 6 months ago

He did let GM fail. And Bush let Lehman fail

I believe we had a panic last fall. And the way to fix that is to restore confidence

I think they did that. We can differ on whether they did it intelligenty or prudently (or maybe we can agree they did it unintelligently and imprudently), but I think we have to credit them with a policy that got the job done

JLM · 6 months ago

This debate is not about President Obama v President Bush --- it is about what happens when big financial entrprises stub their toes.

Does Big Government intervene to influence the outcome or does it ensure that the rules were and are being followed and let private enterprise determine its own fate?

One can hardly say that GM was allowed to "fail" given that the government invested huge amounts of money which were simply consumed in the bankruptcy and has emerged as both the DIP lender and the owner of the "saved" enterprise. We, the US taxpayer, lost over $25B in simply delaying the day of reckoning. The arm twisting of legitimate creditors by the Government was unseemly.

The involvement of the UAW and the raw and earthy political implications make it a chillingly scary undertaking.

I agree wholeheartedly that the restoration of "confidence", as ethereal a concept as that might be, is a critical consideration but that is why I find such fault with Candidate Obama's jumping on the "catastrophe" and President Obama's constant harping on the magnitude of the crisis. We need a bit of Churchillian wisdom that we "...shall fight them on the beaches..." --- a real confidence builder.

I suspect that one of President Obama's failings is that he is so smart he discounts the value of cheerleading. He is the Cheerleader in Chief and he needs to get on a skirt and start leading the cheers.

Anita Lobo · 6 months ago

In a culture that defines success as 'no failures' your perspective is as refreshing as it is honest. We're usually working so hard to hide failures or find someone to blame from them, that its very difficult to REALLY pay attention and learn.
Cheers
@Anita_Lobo

rorybernard · 6 months ago

One thing I think failures in business teach you is to recognise the warning signs earlier and earlier and be able to take pre-emptive action to minimise the fallout of them sooner. The effect of failures are defined by how you deal with them and their after effects. It's always interesting to hear hear people talk about their big early ones and then probe about how they turned potential later failures into successes based on what they learnt.

andreaitis · 6 months ago

I agree, it's often about conquering fear -- either of making a mistake in the first place, or rebounding afterwards. Makes me think of the movie Strictly Ballroom: "A life lived in fear is a life half-lived." For post-fail inspiration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eRSGCIse7M

bombtune · 6 months ago

"Pursue Failure" - can't remember who said it
"I have failed over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed." - Michael Jordan

My two favorite failure quotes.

JLM · 6 months ago

Well, and a 42" vertical leap doesn't hurt either?

Richard · 6 months ago

@bombtune http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45mMioJ5szc

Bombtune · 6 months ago

Yup, great commercial.

timraleigh · 6 months ago

Brilliant! Thanks, made my day.

Susan DeFife Askew · 6 months ago

Henry Ford said "Failure is the opportunity to begin again, more intelligently." How true.

JLM · 6 months ago

You may have made a very insightful but inadvertent comment given the different courses being plotted by GM and Ford Motors. It will be very interesting to see who prospers. I predict that Ford becomes the next GM and GM withers and dies on the vine.

Susan DeFife Askew · 6 months ago

You are correct it was an inadvertent comment on the current state of affairs for Ford, however, I agree completely with your thought process! Making Henry proud???

K. Warman Kern · 6 months ago

In this 4/9/09 NYT interview with Ford CEO Mulally, http://bit.ly/mIfZ8, he talks about 2 factors critical to his success - 1) thinking big about the business your are in "laying bricks vs. building a cathedral" and 2) the importance of overcoming conflict to develop a plan with universal commitment from the team.

Fear of failure is probably the single biggest barrier to both.

Fear of failure causes start-ups or even established corporations to aim low instead of high. To compete in almost any market today you better be good enough to build the cathedral. Even if your are in the doghouse building business. Aiming high also assures that you'll find out if you can't compete, i.e., "fail fast." The guys who aim low can wiggle along for a long time before finding out that their competitive position just doesn't cut it.

Fear of failure also prevents facing a conflict and resolving it. This is really hard to do. But I think a company which values productive conflict to achieve universal commitment to the plan has a better chance to succeed than a company where dissenters aren't welcome.

Katherine Warman Kern
@comradity

JLM · 6 months ago

Big dreams cost as much as little dreams.

The first step in the execution of the plan for a big dream and a little dream are identical.

Why not dream big?

JLM · 6 months ago

"All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible."

T. E. Lawrence, "The Seven Pillars of Wisdom"

British soldier (1888 - 1935)

Beware the man who dreams in the daylight!

egoboss · 6 months ago

One of my favourite books.

'TEL' was an 'interesting chap' to say the least - a very complex fellow ... must re-read it one of these days. Thanks for the reminder.

fredwilson · 6 months ago

Great stuff JLM

K. Warman Kern · 6 months ago

Logo at Leo Burnett - back in the day - was a hand reaching for the stars with slogan "When you reach for the stars you may not catch one, but you won't come up with a handful of mud."

Some folks just have a way with words. Wish I did.

K. Warman Kern (@comradity)

fredwilson · 6 months ago

JLM does

timraleigh · 6 months ago

...or choked to death by the (idiotic) obligations of government handouts...Ford is an interesting case (and a good illustration of Fred's blog) of turning a recent failure (massive losses in '05-'06) into a success.

I have always believed that GMs demise was sowed in 1950 by Charles E. Wilson who as president and COO decided that it would be much better to have a pension fund and invest in common stock than to have a profit sharing plan.
When Peter Drucker (recounted in Adventures of a Bystander http://bit.ly/4edrf6) challenged Wilson by saying "But that will make the employees, within twenty-five years, the owners of American business. Wilson's comment was "For the income distribution in this country surely means that no one else can own American industry unless it be the government."
It seems Mr. Wilson got his wish.

fredwilson · 6 months ago

Some awesome failure quotes in this thread!

Susan DeFife Askew · 6 months ago

There's been plenty of experience when it comes to failure. It's only natural the examination and quotes follow! Enjoying the many comments (and quotes). Thanks for the original post.

fredwilson · 6 months ago

We gotta thank the president for the inspiration actually

Shripriya · 6 months ago

If you failed, you were brave enough to try. And that is the point - it is the trying that will move the world forward. And it's what the US has been really good at.

Mark Essel · 6 months ago

If I was 20 again, I could live with a handful of failures, but time is a resource I can't sacrifice easily. And each lesson within a failure can cost precious months or years of life.

So if I'm going to take a risk and fail, it's gotta be more than just a lesson learned, it has to be wildly entertaining! I'll take fun with my failures from now on.

ShanaC · 6 months ago

I dated a guy who was much older than me, once upon a time. We had about a 15 year spread between us. He kept telling me that. I still consider him a close friend.

I never got that. I was his risk. He was really burnt out when he met me. It may not have worked out in the traditional sense, but he met his about to be wife soon after I broke it off. And I learned a huge amount too. Risk is everything. I still don't get it when he avoids it.

Mark Essel · 6 months ago

oh, no problem with Risk, just desire my risks to be in areas I'm passionate about.
I quit my dayjob to discover my dreams last year. I'm back part time, but I have found potentially life changing ventures.

The risk for me was going back to work, but I preferred getting engaged with some income now.

Satish Mummareddy · 6 months ago

There are two aspects to failure that I see with failure: firstly learning from the mistakes, and secondly having the courage to get back on the horse after you have fallen off. Everyone else has talked about the first, so i am going to just add a small point with respect to the second point. The first few times you fall, it is easy to rise back up. But during really tough times, it helps sooooo much to have a great spouse who is going to help you get back up. Will help you refocus on your strengths, who will provide you the carrot of encouragement along with the stick of learning from your mistakes. It is much easier to help someone else or identify others mistakes than to help yourself and learn from your mistakes. Spouses play a huge role in getting back up when you FALL. :)

fredwilson · 6 months ago

That's for sure. Nothing like a good partnership, spousal or otherwise to help people get back up

JLM · 6 months ago

The older I get the more I know that it is the people with whom we associate that are the most important ingredient in our success (or failure). We often find them in that moment when we are most bruised and battered and exposed and vulnerable but you have to be looking.

You have to actively collect your circle of friends with some passion. I think in all your life you will stumble onto 10 true friends and soulmates. Only 10 and maybe less. Don't lose them. Don't waste them. Don't ignore them.

Don't ever, ever, ever disassociate from folks who were with you when you had nothing or were nothing. They actually liked you for yourself. Their friendship is sincere and not environmental or opportunistic.

Be a good friend in return.

Marry a girl who is a good kisser. Because most good things in a marriage start or end with a kiss.

Richard · 6 months ago

@fredwilson Do you know Randy Komisar? I found this on Stanford University's Entrepreneurship Corner.

Good stuff.

http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo....

"According to Komisar, what distinguishes the Silicon Valley is not its successes, but the way in which it deals with failures. The Valley is about experimentation, innovation, and taking new risks. Only a small business that can deal with failure and still make money can exist in this environment. It is a model based on many, many failures and a few extraordinary successes."

fredwilson · 6 months ago

silicon valley doesn't have a monopoly on that culture
it's ingrained in the american psyche and has been going on in NYC for
centuries

kidmercury · 6 months ago

no doubt boss, always wear failures as badges of honor, so that we learn from them. check my avatar! WHAT WHAT!!

only two days till the anniversary of the greatest failure in american history, and thus my favorite day of the year. the day i am most proud to be an american. the day that reminds me of how much there is to learn from our failures, and how our willingness to learn from our failures is what will truly change the world.

Carl Rahn Griffith · 6 months ago

Brings to mind that wonderful NASA dialogue, upon realizing the severity of the damage to Apollo 13:

NASA Director: This could be the worst disaster NASA's ever faced.
Gene Kranz: With all due respect, sir, I believe this is gonna be our finest hour

saieva · 6 months ago

I'm reminded of Malcolm Gladwell's excellent article on The Art of Failure:

http://www.gladwell.com/2000/2000_08_21_a_choki...

He say's in the article:

"There is as much to be learned, though, from documenting the myriad ways in which talented people sometimes fail."

Sal.

fredwilson · 6 months ago

I hadn't seen that. Thanks for the link

William Mougayar · 6 months ago

Since we're on the subject, I should bring up Eugene Kranz from NASA when he was heading-up the rescue of Apollo 13. His famous quote was "Failure is not an option".
Although this was a life-saving mission, which is different from business- sometimes even in business, one has to hunker down and say "Failure is not an option".

fredwilson · 6 months ago

Lots of talk about apollo 13 here this morning!

William Mougayar · 6 months ago

Gene Kranz is an American hero. I heard him speak once.

Carl Rahn Griffith · 6 months ago

Cool. I heard Jim Lovell speak, in Houston, TX (naturally).

Was fascinating - what a wonderfully subtle, inspiring and brilliant chap.

jmcaddell · 6 months ago

Fred, a couple of months ago I asked if you would mind me reposting your story "A Lesson From Morty" on The Mistake Bank (http://mistakebank.com). You were OK with it as long as it was attributed and linked back to the original post. I'd like to add this story as well--I'd love Mistake Bank subscribers who don't regularly read your blog to be able to see "Failure." Is that still OK with attribution and linkback?

regards, John

fredwilson · 6 months ago

Yes of course. My creative commons license says you are free to repost any of my stuff without getting my permission as long as it is not comingled with hate speech or porn and if you give me a link and attribution

mattmaroon · 6 months ago

Our bankruptcy laws are possibly the best in the world and are what makes this possible. If you read about some of the other OECD nations' bankruptcy laws you'll wonder how they manage to get any entrepreneurs at all. German law, for instance, forbids anyone who has gone bankrupt in a previous company from being CEO.

fredwilson · 6 months ago

Yup. Steve Kane mentioned this too. Imagine being thrown in jail because you went under. Sheese!

Ted Wang · 6 months ago

Great post Fred. Silicon Valley has such a success focused culture, but success provides so many false positives. When you fail, you can much more readily identify the cause(s) of your demise and learn from them. When you are successful, it is not always apparent why. Most people tend to credit their own genius though ;-)

fredwilson · 6 months ago

Hubris is not limited to silicon valley either Ted

aanwar · 6 months ago

This reminded me of something Shahrukh Khan said:

"For success you need to know that you can go wrong and yet go ahead and do it. People who do wrong things, have overcome the thought that this is wrong. They have found their justification. Positively, if we apply the same, it will work. As soon as you accept that this can go wrong, the fear of failure decreases. If tomorrow I face failure, I hope I can say I enjoyed failure too."

marko · 6 months ago

So agree. The only thing to fear, is fear itself. Everyone makes mistakes - no one is perfect. You either let the thought of potential failure paralyze you, or you have the courage to make decisions and take risks in areas that you have the highest probability to succeed (true passions, strong experience, information advantage, great teammates, etc). This is the only path to realize your potential over time....i would even suggest it is your duty to the rest of mankind. Heck, a baseball player is a superstar when they hit 1 for 3....surely we can all do better than that in 'real-life' :) Also, this touches back on the previous discussion threads regarding 'luck'....i just do not believe in it at a fundamental level.....the more willing you are to make decisions, accept failure as possible outcome, and continue moving forward...... the more the variables can level out over time. One coin flip is pretty random, but a million coin flips will near its true average. Same with life.....zillions of micro-instances and opportunities just waiting for you to take action. But its so much easier to sit on the sidelines and point to everyone else's mis-steps......the age-old relationship between the artist and the critic.

And sorry to beat the deadhorse, but europe is definitely way more risk averse overall, and prone to let the risk of failure impede the chance for success. (fully understandable in historical terms)

Brent · 6 months ago

Would you say that in that first decade, you were either overly conservative with your investments or overly aggressive in making exits? It seems like, without knowing any details, if you had absolutely nothing go south on you, you may not have been taking enough "swing-for-the-fences" risks.

fredwilson · 6 months ago

Mostly the first one

jasonspalace · 6 months ago

couldnt agree more, failures don't define us yet have the ability to shape us if we're wise enough to learn from them.

ShanaC · 6 months ago

I'm putting in one comment, that's really complex for now:

As Someone climbing up from failures, and damn proud of it, it's the hardest thing I've ever done, I was never expecting it. I made a decision, because I felt like I had to.

You have to be willing to promise to yourself that you want it, for totally intrinsic reasons. I remember why. I remember the moment, in MOMA, staring at a Jackson Pollack, and thinking I can and will do better. I didn't want to fall into an inner world that was beautiful like he did, and be eaten alive by it. I thought I could do better. I'm still working on the how of that.

It has been really hard. You have to be willing to allow yourself to fall apart at moments, to accept potentially fatal flaws, and to grow from it. I wish I could share all the little moments, and thank the myriad of people that helped me along (some I actually have).

I don't know, being in the process of climbing, and always wanting to be climbing, and accepting the fact that in climbing, you sometimes need to rappel down to get further up, that it is a life for everyone. It's extraordinarily difficult. I wish I knew, because I know that like rock climbing, journies like this are fraught with perils. People die on Everest. I don't think I will on my journey. I just hope that there were more ways to get through to others that it is possible, and to give help that they will make it.

I've actually sat down and cried, and thrown up, at moments. I didn't want to deal with the introspection. It hurt, I was not perfect, the world was not perfect, and for a moment, there was nothing I could do. Those moments paid off in the long run. Turned out I was avoiding myself, and alternative ways of thinking. Letting yourself accept the feeling, especially if over time you can accept it is just that, a feeling, is helpful. I grew, you'll grow too. Don't be afraid of pain. Pain you can grow from. Numbness only leaves you in peril of staying where you are, shut out and cold.

If I could do anything -it would make this process easier by sharing that burden (oddly that's something I learned along the way). Never Be Afraid to Reach Out. In the end, You are stronger if you do not stand alone. It's hard though, because being human is sometimes really isolating. We all are unique, and we all can grate against each other when we try to communicate.

If I could do anything to thank all those people along the way (including the original DARPA guys, who because of their work allowed me to stay in contact with some close friends during some very difficult periods, and hopefully will allow me to get back in touch with old ones that I've lost) - it would be to show them what they've done and to do the same for those who follow me. I'm humbled by their kindness and the willingness of people to choose to help once the message is out there. Especially when it is sometimes clear that the other person is still very much on a journey. Part of the willingness to admit failure, is the willingness to slowly admit that the others around you are human as well.

One last word: This posting habit here started as a Random Whim because I wanted to know about a specific lecture that Fred had given. I had written a similar paper about the subject- and just wanted to add the information on the subject from what I already had (which was decently extensive). I came back because of the people and the discussions. I didn't have to. I'm still not quite sure when and how and why I did; all I know is I did. And that I am glad I did. I found something absolutely amazing. Sometimes you need to go with your gut.

Whether I agree with you or not on a subject at hand- ever person who has commented here I have learned something from. You all kept me here. (Wasn't the plan). You've made me more passionate about life, about what I should be doing with it. Even what books I think I should be reading. You've made more curious. I owe every person here a thank you for helping me on that journey out.

So, Thanks!

Carl Rahn Griffith · 6 months ago

Wow. x

David Semeria · 6 months ago

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger (I've got a few bullet wounds myself)

Carl Rahn Griffith · 6 months ago

I keep telling myself that, David.

I'm sure my bank manager concurs ... ;-)

David Semeria · 6 months ago

Hi Carl, just to mix things up a bit, I'll point out that whilst success sometimes follows from the lows of failure, failure sometimes follows from the highs of success. I've got two examples (both aviation-based) the first is the hot-shot USAF B-52 pilot who put his plane into an impossible bank and promptly flew it into the ground; and the second is the Dutch 747 pilot (chief instructor for KLM) who ignored ATC advice and took off in the fog, promptly crashing into another 747 and causing the biggest aviation disaster in history. Overconfidence: not good.

Dave Pinsen · 6 months ago

Real or metaphorical bullet wounds, David?

Carl Rahn Griffith · 6 months ago

Well, he chooses to live in Italy .... ;-)

David Semeria · 6 months ago

Don't even get me started on the Italian attitude to failure. Suffice to say that Italian Formula 1 viewing figures completely collapsed this year after the Ferrari team stopped winning.

Carl Rahn Griffith · 6 months ago

Lol, I can imagine. A pretty partisan lot, bless 'em. I do love that insane, intense Tifosi passion. Hence why they all love Rossi so much. As I do.

None of that British stiff-upper-lip, as Williams comes 7th in the umpteenth race, after long gone days of glory - saying that, they are having a bit of a renaissance this season (Williams).

As for Badoer in the Massa's Ferrari these last 2 races - ouch - good grief, I dread to think what Gazetta/et al had to say about that. Poor chap.

That was quintessential and painful failure (and oh so much in public), in anyone's terms. I am sure Fisichella - or Kimi - will get the bells ringing in Maranello again this weekend.

I want to see that epitome of British success (the pursuit of) sndrome - Jenson Button - prove me wrong and NOT "snatch defeat from the jaws of victory" this season.

Whoops, we better not hijack Fred's blog here and render it all blah blah F1 blah blah. Sorry, Fred/one and all.

Caveat: Occasional Sheffield Wednesday digressions/metaphors are permitted, however - OK, Fred?

fredwilson · 6 months ago

How does this comment thread morph into a discussion of formula one? At this point I'm never surprised at where these discussions go

egoboss · 6 months ago

David started it.

;-)

Dave Pinsen · 6 months ago

An quote speech by the president, who seems to have had very few failures (or at least public failures) in his life. The one public failure I can think of was his loss to Bobby Rush when he first ran for Congress in IL. What did he learn from that? Would he be in a better position to lead the country now if he had faced more adversity earlier in his career? Obama has had one of the smoothest paths to the presidency in memory -- how does that shape his outlook?

Dave Pinsen · 6 months ago

Meh. The first three words of that should have been, "An interesting quote". Maybe the next version of Disqus will have an editing feature for posted comments?

fredwilson · 6 months ago

I can edit my comments. I didn't know that you can't

Dave Pinsen · 6 months ago

Maybe that feature isn't available to guests. No worries. I'm getting a logo done for a new blog now, so once that's set up I'll get myself a gravatar and become official.

ShanaC · 6 months ago

You could always check the Hyde Park Herald for his old Columns. State Senate District, his old neighborhood, and a very errr, politically involved neighborhood.

fredwilson · 6 months ago

Have you read his first book? I read it when he first announced and his childhood wasn't exactly easy

Dave Pinsen · 6 months ago

I haven't read it, but I've read summaries of it. He seems to have had some difficult times in Indonesia, in particular, but I was thinking more of his adult life. As I said, a pretty smooth path to the presidency. Come to think of it, his predecessor had a fairly smooth path too -- after an early Congressional defeat by a local candidate you positioned himself as more 'authentic' (similar setback as Obama), I don't think Bush had any real political setbacks before getting into the White House.

JLM · 6 months ago

Kent Hance beat George W Bush in their Congressional matchup like a red headed stepchild with a lisp. What George W Bush learned from that was huge. He realized he was not really a "native".

Bush then met Karl Rove, who was running City Council elections for candidates. The rest is history.

Twice elected Governor of Texas and twice elected President. He lost v Obama (ooops, I forgot Obama was running against a guy named McCain, right?). He was a damn good Governor of Texas and received the endorsement and a campaign contribution of the then most powerful Democrat in the State for his second gubernatorial campaign. That is stronger than an acre of W Texas garlic!

I think that Obama had a much earthier and harder existence than W by a long stretch. I think his mother's travails at the hands of her insurance company is at the root of his antipathy for health insurance. The funny thing is they are both exactly what they seem to be --- wild eyed inexperienced liberal and spoiled frat boy. Both very well educated chaps, mind you. Harvard Law v Harvard Biz. Go w/ the biz guy?

Neither characterization suggests they cannot formulate decision points, make good decisions or lead. Just colors their preconceived notions.

I think there is much we do not truly know about our current President. Some of these guys who are getting appointments are really wickedly troubling. Is he really the only honest guy to ever emerge from Chicago machine politics? Hmmmm?

JLM · 6 months ago

If you study President Obama's elections (State Senate, US Senate, Presidency), he has always been blessed by a flawed, troubled, inept or self-destructive opponent. Neither his fault nor his blessing.

The reality of the situation is that Barack Obama has enjoyed the benefits of a "perfect storm" --- an incredibly talented and personable guy; a wonderful speaker; a love affair with the camera and the press in his pocket; a cutting edge technical campaign; a technically artful fundraising effort (some folks have conveniently forgotten he enjoyed a huge, huge fundraising advantage); a hugely unpopular administration (didn't he really run against W rather than McCain?); a miserable opponent who was as inept at every strength BHO possessed as to be truly cursed and an electorate which could feel the pulse of history. Heck, even I like the romance of America's first black President.

Ummm, did I forget to mention the freakin' ECONOMY?

Now of course, the storm has abated and he is revealed to be ordinary, flawed, shallow and inexperienced. Of course, that's just Hillary's opinion, now isn't it?

I am starting to get very scared as to the folks he has surrounded himself with and the proliferation of "czars" --- not the way the checks and balances of confirmation are supposed to work.

Dave Pinsen · 6 months ago

I'm less concerned with the appointment of czars per se as I am with what their views are. As I wrote of the now-departed Van Jones elsewhere, I don't think that many of the policies that seem to be in vogue in the administration are good for job creation.

I noted this elsewhere too, but I was speaking with the CEO of a small, publicly-traded natural resources company a couple of weeks ago, and he told me about laid off coal miners who keep stopping by his company's offices, asking when their new molybdenum mine will be opened, and what they can do to help it launch. That's one example where the government could create high paying blue collar jobs simply by cutting through some of the red tape. All things equal, it's better to extract natural resources in an environmentally responsible way in the U.S., while creating high-paying American jobs in the process, than it is to import the same stuff from a country that won't do it as carefully.

JLM · 6 months ago

Job creation is so easy that they have overlooked the obvious. Give the SBA one tenth of the GM subsidy, increase the government SBA loan guaranty to 100% for the next 5 years for the SBA lenders who have the 25% lowest default rates and get out of the way.

SBA funds translate directly into equipment purchases and job creation. Directly. Immediately. Instantly. Locally.

You cannot create jobs in America by ignoring the country's small business job creation engine. Quick --- who is the most prominent small biz guru amongst the Obama Czardom? Who? Who?

The SBA is already out of money as of this instant.

You cannot really be sincere about energy if nuclear does not even get a seat at the table.

Dave Pinsen · 6 months ago

You could also streamline the regs involved in setting up an SBIC. At the request of a family friend, I looked into the process of setting one up and there's nothing quick or simple about it.

fredwilson · 6 months ago

SBIC's are not so great. I've never met a great investor running and SBIC. They suffer from adverse selection

fredwilson · 6 months ago

He nailed it last night. I was impressed. Very impressed. I don't really like our heatlh care system and would prefer we rip it down and start over. But that's not going to happen. What is going to happen is we are going to fix a lot shit that's broken with healthcare because he has the balls to lead on the issue and stick it to the dickheads on the right who are in the pocket of the insurance companies and have been fearmongering successfully on this issue since the Clinton years

JLM · 6 months ago

For the last 30 years, I have provided my employees with health, dental, vision, life insurance and have provided a funded wellness program which pays employees for exercise, smoking cessation, weight loss and health club dues.

I have provided a Cafeteria 125 plan to empower my folks to use "before tax" $$$ to pay their deductibles.

I have done it without any government urging or funding. I have done it in diverse industries and I have allowed my folks to make the decision on the providers subject only to my review. I have never countermanded their decision.

Why?

Cause it's good business. I have dug ditches in my life and I know what it means to work hard. [Probably my favorite things in the whole world are digging ditches, painting, cutting the grass, shining shoes and shoveling snow. I am a bit simple minded.] I believe in the dignity of work.

I am opposed to the presence of money and influence in government and agree completely with your premise as it relates to undue influence of insurance companies on the political process. I hesitate to demonize them as they are playing the game the way the game is played. I would rather change the game.

If I were the decision-maker (maybe the "decider"? LOL), I would have lobbying banned and would publicly fund elections.

President Obama's speech was the usual great speech. He is a fabulous orator. The problem is that nobody actually believes him anymore. He has blown his credibility. He himself is guilty of exactly the fearmongering which you note. His anecdotes are just as tired, rare and extreme as those of his opposition.

We have now devolved into a liar's convention as it relates to healthcare.

A newly informed public --- not the bomb throwers on the right and left but the man in the street --- now recognizes the impossibility of a private sector healthcare insuror absorbing the cost of portability, no pre-existing condition exclusions and no caps on treatment while attempting to provide an economical service.

The electorate does not believe that the government can provide this service because they cannot find a single government entity that provides an efficient service; and, the prospect of having the IRS be the arbiter of compliance is madness.

BTW, I would be curious to now how many of your portfolio companies provide any kind of health insurance to their employees?

fredwilson · 6 months ago

I believe they all provide some kind of insurance once they have the funds to do that (our funding them is often the starting point as it just was at foursquare)

Ivan Kirigin · 6 months ago

Great post. Interesting contrast and some comments: http://giantrobotlasers.com/post/183766525/push...

David Semeria · 6 months ago

Edit - Disqus bug under Iceweasel / Debian

Carl Rahn Griffith · 6 months ago

Cool - I see what you mean.

I am the pilot (I was on an early solo flight) who had to land in a field (I was running out of fuel) to ask "Where am I?" ... true.

To this day I am unsure if that was a success or failure - ie, I got my bearings, got back in the 'plane (feeling even more terrified) and navigated back to the airfield I should have been at.

Life is so bloody dull nowadays, lol!

David Semeria · 6 months ago

Definitely a success! Consider the alternative outcomes...

Carl Rahn Griffith · 6 months ago

True. But, I quit flying solo not long after ... :-)

JLM · 6 months ago

Garmin 430/530 GPS, "direct to" function or "nrst airport". Works every time! LOL

egoboss · 6 months ago

Aye, is a lot easier nowadays with such gadgets being commonplace - in cars and 'planes! - I didn't even have a map with me.

A good lesson in the importance of Preparation, Preparation, Preparation!

JLM · 6 months ago

Sometimes "ded reckoning" can become "dead reckoning"!? Glad you got home safe.

egoboss · 6 months ago

Lol, yup. The owner of the plane was even more happy to see me - at the time some $50k worth of brand new Grob 109.

David Semeria · 6 months ago

Metaphorical wounds, thankfully Dave, mostly in my back!

Dave Pinsen · 6 months ago

Like the pioneers.

Mike Alfred · 6 months ago

Obama may have nailed that lesson in his speech, and it was a good one. But how come he seems to be so hesitatnt to use the word "entrepreneur" in his public pronouncements? Is he afraid of entrepreneurs? Does he just like firefighters, doctors, lawyers, and dentists better or think they are more legitimate professions? It seems to me that entrepreneurship is really the only thing that can turn this country around and I'd like to see more support from Obama.

fredwilson · 6 months ago

I don't read his public comments enough to know if he avoids that word or not. I'd hate to know that he does.

But his comments about the 'kids' who went on to invent google, facebook, and twitter yesterday were a nod to entrepreneurship if I ever heard one

Mike Alfred · 6 months ago

Fred, I agree that the 'kids' comment was clearly a nod to entrepreneurship. But that's exactly the problem. In what great country do the leaders not explicitly mention their greatest strengths and resources? Lawyers aren't the engine of our economy. Once a great entrepreneur starts building something, that single event can lead to the future employment of hundreds of attorneys. So why does he always mention that profession explicitly and only refer almost cryptically to the other?

andyswan · 6 months ago

The guy has declared war on entrepreneurs. It's just beginning. Entrepreneurs do not provide voting blocks and typically prefer liberty to nannies.

JLM · 6 months ago

I actually think that the Obama administration has almost nobody who has ever been in business or who has run a business or who has any business experience. It may be entirely structural and not a bit personal.

Having said that --- my favorite rule of real estate always was --- when the dentists and lawyers get in --- SELL!

fredwilson · 6 months ago

That's a good thing. There aren't any business that we give all of our money to like Haliburton

fredwilson · 6 months ago

You are wrong about this andy. I think you'll find that our president is not only a friend of entrepreneurs but is a full throated capitalist too

andyswan · 6 months ago

I would love to be proven wrong on this!

Please blog when you see evidence (NOT WORDS) that I am.

fredwilson · 6 months ago

It will take a few years to see the effects. Hopefully before he runs again

andyswan · 6 months ago

Agree. But pls post the policies he enacts that affirm your view even
if effects aren't seen yet. Very interested in your alternate take...

fredwilson · 6 months ago

Well let's start with his reluctance to push for a single payer govt controlled health care system

andyswan · 6 months ago

That's just political expediency--- a good first step, as described in his
own words:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUgMJHOt6dw

JLM · 6 months ago

He's a skinny, wiry guy so maybe it's not much of a throat!

fredwilson · 6 months ago

He mentioned entrepreneurs last night and threw the ambulance chasing lawyers under the bus. It was a good night!

JLM · 6 months ago

Tort reform is such low hanging fruit, such an obvious abuse and would deliver so many Republican votes, it is truly curious that he has not championed this development.

It would also define his independence from the Fidel Castro-Nancy Pelosi winglet of the Democratic party. It is a lost opportunity.

He may have backed the ambulance over a couple of toes, but he did not throw anybody under the bus.

I suspect it is all a bit too little way too late.

I love the pomp of the President speaking to the Congress. The speech was well written and well delivered. If only President Obama's speeches and governance gee hawed. He had a nice edge and challenge in his voice --- a splash of theatre.

I could have predicted the Ted Kennedy reference but it all comes down to a simple question --- "...or what?"

If the Congress does not produce the bill he wants, what happens? The Democrats are not scared of him and the Republicans are not engaged. He has shut them out. He needed to triangulate and he flat lined.

He has lost any possible bi-partisan support by having rolled with the Democrats and having excepted the Republicans. If his actions had met his campaign rhetoric, he would have the bill he wants.

Dean Smith has already signalled the 4-corners and Phil Ford has the ball. Healthcare reform is dead.

fredwilson · 6 months ago

Wanna bet on that?

svk77 · 6 months ago

Am in on the bet with you, Fred. it's gonna happen - healthcare reform. You can make out in the determination of the administration, and it's part of President Obama's core belief system. Read his 2 books. One doesn't pretend to think like this over the years in anticipation.

JLM says:
"Tort reform is such low hanging fruit, such an obvious abuse and would deliver so many Republican votes, it is truly curious that he has not championed this development."

If it is such a low hanging fruit, why hasn't someone fixed it before this? Why damn the person actually doing something about it because it is "easy" to do?


"I suspect it is all a bit too little way too late."

Is it? By what standards? Since he has been there for 8 months and not managed to fix the world? The man has done more n these 8 months than was done in the last 8 years. And if his healthcare plan is too little too late, maybe we should blame the presidents and legislators of the past few decades for not having done it.

K. Warman Kern · 6 months ago

I was disappointed by the healthcare speech. There is so much confusion. I would have preferred he address misperceptions head on instead of with fluffy rhetoric.

The fact is that the original plan was to fine any company that didn't insure its employees and the current bill waives this requirement for small entrepreneurs. Originally we were looking at covering anyone (including potentially the undocumented), that is not the case now. Rather than acknowledging this compromise, the word "universal" was not used to describe the plan. The public option is just that: a public option. It is not a single payer system.

I understand that he risked further alienating the left by acknowledging these compromises. So he made a choice - is it better to avoid alienating the left - or acknowledge the compromises that have been made. Which is more critical to winning support from the critical center?

K. Warman Kern (@comradity)

fredwilson · 6 months ago

I'm a centrist but also a realist. This is washington dc we are talking about. He's doing his best to get something done that makes the current system better. Its not what I want but I support it

Dave Pinsen · 6 months ago

Why don't more talented folks from the entrepreneurship/investor community enter politics?

fredwilson · 6 months ago

Because we say things that will be used against us!

K. Warman Kern · 6 months ago

keeps lots of really competent people out of politics and probably dilutes the effectiveness of many who are in office

fredwilson · 6 months ago

Yup

andyswan · 6 months ago

Not to mention it is SO much more fun to be around someone that will admit his failures/faults and have a good laugh about them.

Likability is a huge factor in success, and failure a big factor in likability!

It's been since the 80's that we've had a President with even a hint of self-deprecating humor and humility!

FundingPost · 6 months ago

Great Post - I love reading your stuff!

geekevaluation · 6 months ago

"think embracing failure is one of the things that makes this country such a great place to do business in. In many parts of the world, if you fail once, you are done. People won't touch you with a ten foot pole. But here in the US, it's almost a badge of honor. And our President explains why"

So true Fred..so true. This is the reason this country has invented so much because it nurtures this kind of culture where in people can fall down, get up , brush themselves and then get back to work.
You would not be considered as a loser and will get second chance.

Tanya Mattox · 6 months ago

So glad you wrote this. It encourages as I take inventory of past failures and current plans.

Tanya Mattox · 6 months ago

So glad Fred Wilson wrote this. Encourages as I take inventory of past failures and current plans.

Ryan Graves · 6 months ago

Yes yes yes.

I wrote about this as an area where Chicago's tech community could improve. http://bit.ly/3w40BZ

Also, I was recently asked to talk about my failed startup that closed in June, "do I really want to put myself out there like that", I asked myself, then I agreed and tomorrow night I'm bearing all. I'm nervous but excited and will keep your term 'badge of honor' in mind.

Cheers,
Ryan

fredwilson · 6 months ago

Good luck! Its a brave thing to do

Maskd Financier · 6 months ago

I'm a big fan of Fred and AVC, particularly given his use of poker as a medium for explaining venture capital and investing. I have indeed written a blog post about this subject at Texas Holdem Investing.
In any case, poker as a tool for learning to invest can help immensely in training would-be investors to deal with failure. With poker, as with investing (and trading) "losses are like breathing" as Ed Seykota said.
Losses do help to teach you what not to do - and they tend to hurt more emotionally than wins do on the upside.
Although I would be wary about wearing losses too much as a badge of honour, particularly when trying to raise funds. I think it would be more appropriate to advise that you should simply be able to discuss your losses cogently when asked about them. Being too proud of them might give the wrong impression!

fredwilson · 6 months ago

That's true. A bad track record will kill you on the fundraising trail. Investors want managers who learned their lessons on someone else's nickel

Keenan · 6 months ago

Great discussion in the comments.

I think our economic environment provides resiliency for failure, not our culture. Therefore, I can't say I agree with you on this sentence in your post.

"I think embracing failure is one of the things that makes this country such a great place to do business in." (yes as entrepreneurs, no in the corporate/public company world)

In the corporate world there is little patience for risk, BECAUSE of failure. Most rise through the ranks, not because they have failed and came though it, but because they didn't fail.

There is little tolerance for mistakes, or failure in today's corporate world. Reward is given to those who can show a modicum of success with NO failure as opposed to those who fail on their way to huge success because they are quickly scuttled after the failure rarely given a chance to succeed.

In today's world of immediate results, what have you done for me lately, quarter by quarter assessment, little room is left for the time lost from mistakes.

My view - Why would I fire a person who just made a huge mistake and failed? It only compounds my loss, as I never get the benefit of what they've learned from the mistake.

Tolerance of failure in today's corporate world, is not only scarce it is diminishing day by day and that is a shame.

fredwilson · 6 months ago

Most big companies are marking time

Keenan · 6 months ago

So that begs the question, at what point does a start-up start acting
like a big company and what is the cost of losing an environment where
failure is accepted?

//keenan

fredwilson · 6 months ago

Maybe you've answered your own question

Mark Geller · 6 months ago

It is a blessing to live and work in a country that enables entrepreneurs to fail and try again... and again. I have a close friend whose parents are in mainland China, and are on the hook for business debts of their extended family. Now my friend must send back money every month for years so her elderly parents do not have to go to debtors prison.

Compared to that, wearing one's failures as a badge and learning from past mistakes sounds like a breeze!

stp · 6 months ago

My start-up scars "on my sleeve": http://blog.stevepoland.com/start-up-scars-10-t...

fredwilson · 6 months ago

I love it steve

SD · 6 months ago

Yes you are right..lessons learned are more important and help us in future...

DorianBenkoil · 6 months ago

Counselors (career, outplacement...) seem to tout hiding failures, or at least trying to recast and pitch them in a new way ... Is this an indication that our businesses, who hire, haven't learned to embrace the learnings of failure? That the counselors are espousing timidity?

I think both, probably, but interested in others' thoughts.

fredwilson · 6 months ago

In big companies, I think that might be the right approach. not for startups though

fredwilson · 6 months ago

In big companies, I think that might be the right approach. not for startups though

ADstruc · 6 months ago

Fred,

This was a spectacular post and a great way to wake up this morning feeling charged to approach anything and everything with a different view. Thanks so much for this post.

John
ADstruc
www.adstruc.com
Welcome home, out-of-home.
Your online marketplace for outdoor advertising.

fredwilson · 6 months ago

I saw your tweet john. Thanks for the props!

scott crawford · 6 months ago

Oh serendipity. Read your post this morning. Then happened to just now pick up a book of daily meditations, turned to the reading for today's date, and was greeted by this: "Some of the best lessons we ever learn, we learn form our mistakes and failures...The error of he past is the wisdom and success of the future." -- Tryon Edwards.

Fail early, fail often!

fredwilson · 6 months ago

Nice quote

jturner · 6 months ago

While Obama is a good speaker and can get a lot of people to cheer for him, I think there are plenty of other people to quote good things from, rather than a president who is trying to turn our country into a socialist nation by bailing out shareholders of banks at taxpayer expense and trying to fund universal healthcare at taxpayer expense. I think the history books will look back on him as a terrible president who contributed significantly to destroying the value of our currency.

And one of the only ways for the average person to currently protect their wealth from this currency debasement and deficit building is to invest in gold related assets. There are some articles at http://www.goldalert.com/ that further discuss the government's policies and its potential effects on the gold price. There are severe long term inflationary consequences of all of this money printing, and some of these involve the potential failure of our currency.

markallenroberts · 6 months ago

Great post,

Our failures help us get it right the next time. Through adversity we shape and build our leadership muscles.

There are lessons all around us if we just frame them as so, without the emotional attachments that often cloud our ability to see.
For example, the 2009 health care reform has a number of lessons for entrepreneurs that I shared in my blog post: 12 Lessons All Leaders Can Learn About Launching New Products and Services …From the 2009 Health Care Reform http://nosmokeandmirrors.wordpress.com/2009/09/...

Keep in mind the failures you learn from do not always need to be your own.
Mark Allen Roberts

Bruce Lynn · 6 months ago

Embracing failure is part and parcel of taking risks. And taking risks is wha entrepreneurship and venture capital is all about. For more quotes, illustrations, books, stories of embacing failure and turning adversity to advantage, my blog - http://brucelynnblog.spaces.live.com - has been exploring this subject for several years now.

For more of Obama's perspectives on embracing failure, check out his SNHU commencement address - http://brucelynnblog.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!B....

Senthil Balakrishnan · 6 months ago

Awesome, I loved it.

thos · 5 months ago

Interesting, and long held to be true in all areas of endeavour - from military leadership to business. One thing though, don't be so full of yourself on America-the-beautiful's ability to allow people second bites at the cherry - it's generally held in the English-speaking world, and probably well beyond it, that people who are overnight successes have had several attempts to get there, and they eventually made it because they persisted. I don't think the US has a lock on that.