When failure is not the end of your career

This is the Chapter 11 of my e-book Silicon Valley for Foreigners, that can be downloaded for free on www.siliconvalleybook.com or purchased for $2.99 on the iBookStore and Kindle. A new chapter will be posted on this blog every week.

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In a few countries such as the United States, successful entrepreneurs are seen as role models and enjoy a lot of recognition and appreciation by people from all walks of life. They are treated like rock stars.

Failure, on the other hand, is vilified in almost any culture, from East Asia to Latin America. In most countries, failed products or startups are seen as a badge of dishonor and will probably follow entrepreneurs for life as a stain on their reputation.

In Silicon Valley, one of the most competitive ecosystems in the world, failure is still not appreciated or encouraged but is seen through a different prism. Maybe because of the engineering centric culture, the Bay Area community has always treated failure either as an inherent part of the scientific method, a fact of life or a means to an end. Thinking this way has been helpful in removing the stigma that entrepreneurs who made mistakes could not rebound later.

It is well documented that the vast majority of startups fail. What most people do not realize is that even the most successful entrepreneurs have failed at something or at some point in their careers. The road to success is seldom a straight line.

Steve Jobs, for instance, worked on the failed Apple II successor before reaching stardom with the Macintosh in 1984. The project, named Lisa, faced many development issues and numerous delays. When the computer was finally released in 1983, it became an embarrassing disappointment for both Steve and Apple. Its high price ($24,000 in $201), relatively low performance and unreliable floppy disks led to poor sales, with only a hundred thousand units sold.

We should also not forget that Steve Jobs was fired from the company he founded. After Apple, Steve went on to found NeXt Computer where he stayed under the radar until 1994. NeXt had not achieved meaningful commercial success during the period.

Things began to change in 1995, with the launch of the revolutionary Toy Story (Pixar was acquired by Steve in 1986). Success knocked at his door again only in 1997 when, in an unexpected turn of events, Apple bought NeXt and brought Steve Jobs back to initiate a triumphal new era of disruption that cemented him as the face of product innovation.

Elon Musk is another great example of how success is not a straight line. The acclaimed entrepreneur, at some point in life, was failing at everything he tried to accomplish. At the end of 2008, Elon invested all his money ($180 million) into his companies, which were on the verge of bankruptcy (Space X had three rocket failures, Tesla ran out of capital). At the time, he needed to borrow money from friends to pay the rent and also endured a hurtful divorce from his first wife.

Almost a decade later, Elon was not only able to reverse his fortune on both Tesla and SpaceX but also started revolutions in industries as diverse as energy, aerospace, and automotive, becoming the most innovative and influential entrepreneur alive.

Mistakes that lead to catastrophic failures are painful, unforgettable and, sometimes, irreversible. However, when entrepreneurs take responsibility and learn from past mistakes, they are able to turn the table. This is what Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, and smart entrepreneurs do.

The Silicon Valley ecosystem sees this process as a real life MBA, more valuable than the lessons learned from top academic institutions. In entrepreneurship, no pain is no gain and blaming someone or something for our own failures is neither a responsible nor an efficient strategy.

The cool thing about Silicon Valley entrepreneurs is that they have no shame to talk about their mistakes and what they have learned from them. Actually, it is quite the opposite as this conversation is a common topic of keynotes, meetups, and panels across the Bay Area. There is even a large conference dedicated to failures called Failcon.

The idea of sharing lessons from failure is based on the premise that anyone can learn from other people’s mistakes. This simple gesture is extremely important to boost the ecosystem’s competitiveness as it breaks conventions and accelerates the progress of other founders.

Silicon Valley truly believes failures make entrepreneurs wiser, more mature, more resilient, and less prone to fail again. Having said that, it is important to stress the ecosystem only respects and appreciates failed entrepreneurs if they use the lessons learned to become successful later on.

Success still continues to be the best antidote to failure, anywhere. When life gives you lemons, why not make lemonade?