Time for some other type of posts, not related to what I usually write about. But it bothers me to see so many “shiny” posts on Linkedin, when I know for sure that the reality is so much different than what they write there.

So, time to demystify a bit this topic.

This is a follow-up of the post Beyond “Move Fast and Fail Fast”: Balancing Speed, Security, and … Sanity in Software Development (with Podcast).

Failure is the key to success ?

I’ve been seeing a lot of news and articles, especially on LinkedIn, about this whole “failure is the key to success” and “fail fast” mantras that are constantly being thrown around, especially in the tech world.

You see all these founders and CEOs talking about their past flops like … they’re badges of honor.

While I understand that it is kind of cool to write about failures when you are finally successful, I can’t ignore the feeling that they’re glossing over the actual sting of it all.

Honestly, who wants to fail?

Nobody !

Nobody I know, me included, starts a project, pours their heart and soul, and probably a good chunk of money into it, hoping it all crashes and burns.

That’s just not how it works. Really, it is not !

We all dream of the big win, the thing that takes off and makes a real difference.

I’ve had my share of stumbles, projects that never quite got off the ground, ideas that looked brilliant on paper but just didn’t resonate with anyone else and big projects that just failed at some point.

And let me tell you, each one of those felt like what they were: failures.

There’s the initial disappointment, of course, that sinking feeling when you realize things aren’t going the way you planned. But then comes the self-doubt, the questioning of your own abilities, and maybe even a bit of embarrassment.

It’s not a pleasant experience, no matter how you try to spin it. Trying to sell it is a “good, positive experience” just isn’t right.

I can unterstand that after you are very successful, you can look back with nostalgy and talk about past failures. But honestly, how many entrepreneurs out there can really say that they had the big hit and success, so that they can be able to do that? Very, very few.

What comes after

In time, you come to realize, though, is that the real value in those less-than-successful ventures wasn’t the failure itself, but what came after.

It was the post-mortem, the digging into what went wrong:

• Was it a flawed concept from the start?
• Did we misjudge the market?
• Were there technical hurdles we couldn’t overcome?
• Or maybe, did I or we make some crucial mistakes along the way in how I or we approached things?

Those moments of reflection, those sometimes painful analyses, are where the real learning happens.

It’s not the failure that magically makes you smarter; it’s the effort you put into understanding why it happened.

It’s about picking apart the pieces, figuring out what you could have done differently, and making a conscious effort not to repeat those same missteps next time.

All that remains after this is that you just struggle to continue and to continue slowly to be better.

Are failures opportunities in disguise?

Don’t get me wrong: while I don’t think failure is something to strive for, or something we should pretend is a joyous occasion, I do believe it’s an inevitable part of the journey.

And maybe, just maybe, those moments of falling short are actually opportunities in disguise. But usually they are just that – failures.

They force us to take a hard look at ourselves and our work, and if we’re able and willing to do that, they can ultimately guide us towards a better path.

So, those who out there who It’s not about celebrating the failure, but about honoring the lessons learned in its wake. And that, I think, is the real truth of it all.

PS: What do you think of those “ex-Google”, “ex-Facebook” and other ex-es ? Aren’t they also a form of failures ?

Instead of conclusions

I asked an AI to give me some examples of entrepreneurs who failed multiple times big and then succeeded:

• Steve Jobs: As mentioned before, he was famously fired from Apple, the very company he co-founded. His subsequent venture, NeXT, struggled in the market, although the technology developed there was instrumental in his eventual return to Apple and the innovations that followed. Even upon his return, Apple had its share of less successful products before the iPod, iPhone, and iPad revolutionized the industry.
• James Dyson: While not strictly software, his journey in developing the bagless vacuum cleaner involved an astounding 5,126 failed prototypes over 15 years. This relentless pursuit of a technological innovation despite repeated setbacks is a powerful example of perseverance in the tech-adjacent hardware world.
• Evan Williams: Before co-founding Twitter, Evan Williams was involved in a podcasting platform called Odeo. This venture struggled to gain traction, especially after Apple launched iTunes with podcast support. However, the experience and some of the ideas from Odeo eventually led to the creation of Twitter, a massively successful social media platform.
• Richard Branson: While known for ventures across various industries, Branson’s Virgin Group has had its share of failures in the tech and related sectors. For example, Virgin Digital, his attempt to compete with iTunes, didn’t achieve lasting success. Virgin Cars, an online car retailer, also closed down after a few years.
• Bill Gates: Before co-founding the tech giant Microsoft, Bill Gates and Paul Allen had an early business venture called Traf-O-Data. This company aimed to process and analyze traffic data, but it ultimately failed. The lessons they learned from this early experience, however, likely contributed to their later success with Microsoft.