Ask HN: How to recover after failure?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5081182

by lindalee • 14 years ago

5 5 14 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I was a co-founder of a startup that never delivered and gained the reputation of not being able to do so. We decided not to launch after reevaluating the marketplace. We're in a city that doesn't embrace failure among startups so it's been especially difficult. I've learned to stay more stealth but in reality would love to talk to people about my ideas. Personally, I've grown from this "failure" and pivoted on to something great. How do I regain my reputation and should I even care? My focus is my customers and have already gained significant traction on my new startup.

rman666• 14 years ago

Learn from your failure; turning your failure into learning. Then there is no need to recover, only a need to move on to your next lesson.

lindalee2• 14 years ago

Very powerful, thanks.

Rev55• 14 years ago

You need to under promise and over deliver with your new startup. Everyone loves a good comeback story, use this to your advantage. After you've started to over deliver for your clients, ask if they would write about their experience in exchange for xyz.

After a few have done that, write a post titled "How my failed startup helped me succeed" or similar. In this post be very transparent about why your first startup failed to deliver, but don't ever put blame on anyone but yourself. Take responsibility for the failure. Talk about what you learned and how those lessons are helping you deliver for your current clients. In your post link to the articles your current clients wrote and briefly mention why they're happy.

Afterwards, promote the shit out of your post.

What this accomplishes:

1. It takes away any power a person would have in bringing up your past failure because you've spun it in a positive way. This will give you the confidence to talk about ideas moving forward. You will always be able to take negative criticism of your past failure and spin it to talk about how it lead to your current success.

2. You've given people a good story. People like good stories, and they love good story tellers.

3. Using your current clients endorsement you prove that you can deliver.

Just some rough thoughts. Sorry for the bad grammer. I just don't care enough to correct them. Hope this helps.

lindalee2• 14 years ago

This is beautiful, thank you :)

orangethirty• 14 years ago

I have failed so many times that I called my plastic surgeon so he could sew in more fingers for me to count them. Know what? People are going to think that you are a failure either way. Why? Its their own reflection showing off their fears. You see, when you fail you admit you are human. That you dont know everything. That sometimes you make the wrong choices. One thing that this gives is the power to liberate yourself from those very own choices. Every bad choice itself is an opportunity to further down the road fix it. The biggest fear you should have in your life is not failure, but a lack of failure. Because it means that you stopped trying. That you gave up. And even though very few of us ever manage to make it, from my experience, I can say that its not the goal that matters but the journey. So far, I've managed to impact a lot of lives postiviely. Plan to impact a lot more.

When we fail we are forced to change. Change is good. It brings new things into our lives. There is a sayingt that goes something like this:

If you want to change the world, change your country. If you want to changeyour country, change your town. If you want to change your town, change your neighborhood. If you want to change your neighborhood, change your home. If you want to change your home, you gotta change yourself.

Failure is the mechanism through which we receive feedback to make sure the change we are doing is positive. Dont shy away from it. Run towards it and embrace. For it will set you free.

Ask HN: How to recover after failure?

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