

Failure May Never Be "Accepted" - vijayanands
http://www.facebook.com/thestartupcentre/posts/350831888288282

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angdis
It depends on what is meant by "failure" and by "acceptance".

I guess some people need simplistic slogans/mantras to get motivated. At one
start-up I worked in, the founder frequently ended his emails with the phrase
"Failure is NOT an option!" Well, obviously, it was "an option" because that
is exactly what happened to the start-up (if you define "failure" as no longer
existing). On the other hand, everyone had a great time, learned a lot, and
are or will use the experience of "the failure" to succeed in another context
in the future.

I generally don't have a problem with such slogans-- whatever floats your boat
is fine for me. But for heaven's sake, please don't put it on a T-shirt and
expect your employees to wear it proudly, it is embarrassing to folks who take
a pragmatic point of view.

~~~
vijayanands
Hehe, I can empathize with you. And Yep Failure is very much an option - most
of the time it is the startup that fails, not the founder, not the team. But
yet, more than anymore its those two sets of people who take it the hardest.
That was the context.

My mentor used to remind me often that we are the final product, and that
"phase" when we are building a startup is all towards enabling the product
(aka us) to grow a skillset - or a new feature, if you'd call it that.

I worry when entrepreneurs and visionaries anticipate and call for a world
that would embrace failure. I have no idea what that means, but failure - on a
personal level - to accomplish that set task in a phase in a life, still would
hurt, if not anything, just for the mere sake of the confidence and drive we
put into it.

But every entrepreneur worth his or her salt will survive it.

