Why Failure Is More Important Than You Think

Your success is often explained by the failures in your past

People love to celebrate successful startups like Uber and AirBnB that became billion-dollar businesses, but here’s something to consider: Around 20 months after raising money, 70% of new tech companies fail.

7 out of 10! That’s a lot.

Failure is so common that founders created an ongoing “Startup Failure Post-mortem” where they discuss the things that went wrong with their company. The idea is that other founders will read their mistakes and learn from them.

I can relate, because I tried to start many different businesses in the first four years after grad school. For example, I tried my hand at starting a marketing agency, which didn’t work out. I tried building websites for businesses. That also wasn’t successful.

I even tried to start a men’s apparel brand. I have no clue why I came up with that idea at the time. And I tried a few other things that are too embarrassing to mention here.

Here’s what I experienced: Every time you fail, you feel bad.

We invest a lot of time, effort, and resources on these attempts. And it doesn’t work out, it’s easy to say, “learn from your failures!” But that doesn’t make it hurt less.

No matter how much failure hurts, however, one must never stop trying. And here are four reasons why it’s so important to keep going despite failure.

1. Failure could be the “most important piece” in your life

In the 2008 NBA Finals, the Lakers lost to the Celtics with a 39-point loss in Game 6. The late Kobe Bryant felt miserable. But he considered that moment to be the “most important piece” in the 2nd half of his NBA career. He said:

“I don’t remember the loss as a painful experience, I remember it as a beautiful moment because it helped me find the best version of myself and my teammates. I always remember the beauty of it. But at the time, not so much.”