Truth is, failure is the lifeblood of entrepreneurship.
Your initial idea, and perhaps even your greatest idea, will fail for unforeseen reasons.
You’ll run out of money.
You’ll have “IN IT days” where everything sucks.
Your customers will stop buying or using your product/service.
The world or your life will change in an instant.
You do not get to escape or hide failure — nor should you.
Claiming every failure builds trust, resilience and increases your odds for success.
When you claim failure, YOU get to control the narrative.
Early investors invest in founders not ideas… your integrity is everything. Tell the truth. Tell it often.
When you claim failure BEFORE having fixed the issue, it can help you solve it.
When you share your failures in a productive way, you open up opportunities for others in your network to offer help or solutions that you’d never be able to get to on your own. You never know who will have a key to your problem.
YOUR job is to stay in the game
As a founder, your job is to stay in the game as long as it takes to succeed – whatever success looks like for you. Sometimes that requires taking the slingshot approach or what I now lovingly call the ‘Power of the Pivot.’
The founder journey is an emotional rollercoaster that tempts you to quit, but failure is just another sign that you’re were moving along the founder journey, right on track. Just never go it alone…
Enter, the Pallet Pasty
What’s a Pallet Pasty you might ask? Well, according to Whatsapp, it is the far more fabulously decorated and totally nonsensical autocorrect of “roller coaster.” Not quite the autocorrect we deserved, but certainly the one we needed in that moment. Touché, Whatsapp. Touché.
It sounds silly, but every week for over two years my founder accountabilibuddy and I track the Pallet Pasty — aka the founder emotional rollercoaster — in a spreadsheet, rating our state of minds from 1 to 5…
1 = IN IT. 👎 (meaning, everything is bad. bad, bad, bad. Total dumpsterfire. 0/10. Thumbs ALL the way down. Hundo-p failing. IN IT.)
5 = On FIRE 🔥 (meaning, days are filled with pure unicorn magic. That founder high we all chase when even the stars align perfectly.)
If you’re a freak-in-the-‘sheets like me, treat ‘yo self and download our template here.
SIDENOTE: Get yourself an accountabilibuddy, stat.
ESPECIALLY on the IN IT days when all you want to do is hide (and hide your failures). Trust me.
Their destination doesn’t quite matter, just find someone on a similar journey as you, and equally as dedicated. Schedule weekly or bi-weekly calls and show up every. single. time.
You never get to escape the bad IN IT days. But having support makes them far less lonely and scary. We’ve all been there and will be there again soon enough — seeing the ups and downs mapped out over time is usually reassurance enough to trust that the lows (and highs for that matter) never last too long.
Plus, your accountabilibuddy is there to remind you…
“Yup, You’re right on track. keep going.”
Reflect, Recuperate and Recalibrate
Mother Nature herself needs rest — winter, night, and other seemingly dormant cycles that spark new life. When you’re way off track, pause and get your bearings. If possible, take a moment to zoom out far and wide to identify gaps and with brutal honesty, find what’s not working. Focus on energizing and resourcing yourself first. Your startup can only holistically succeed if you’re still in the game.
If you’re truly stuck and unsure of the path forward, set forth on another discovery phase. Ask around. Get some new perspective. Narrow your scope, redefine your business model, hone in on your core customer; refocus on driving immediate value, nurture long-time partnerships, seek alternate funding through collaboration or any other opportunity to gain new perspective and momentum.
Sometimes you’ll need to pivot.
The Power of the Pivot
Be more obsessed with getting it right than being right.
Listen, you are NOT your startup. You are not your product or service. You are not technology. Or a unicorn. Or anything-as-a-service. And you are certainly not alone in feeling like you —in fact— might be. But you’re not. The sooner you detach your personal identity from your idea or creation, the sooner you get to embody the person and type of founder and leader you were meant to be.
Chances are this isn’t your first venture or your last. You’re going to fail and get a million things wrong AND — because you are you — you’re going to keep going.
Admit when things aren’t working, pivot and move on.
While it can be downright terrifying to admit “failure” and setbacks to potential investors and your supporting community, it will not scared off those committed to your journey.
Investors WANT to see how you bounce back from the inevitable failures.
Partners WANT to help you succeed for your benefit and theirs.
Customers WANT you to keep going to help alleviate their pain.
Your team WANTS you to win.
The planet NEEDS you to stay in the game, because at this point, it’s all hands on deck — and we must regen’ this Mother.
When in doubt, check your Pallet Pasty and remember Ray Dalio’s never ending, loopty-loop path to success.
You got this.
Onward!
— Julie, CEO / Co-founder of Taurio