Do not index
Do not index
Had a conversation with a friend yesterday.
He asked how I kept going back to startups after each failure.
I don't remember what I said, but he responded with:
"Right, there is no failure, just experience."
And I told him I HATE that sentence.
Let's be real:
I've failed. Many times.
- Tweet Hunter before it worked? Failure.
- The #500k funding I raised for MagiCats Builder? Massive failure.
- Dozens of side projects no one remembers? All failures.
This whole "there is no failure, just experience" thing?
It's an acknowledgment that we think failure is BAD, so we need to hide it behind pretty words.
Call it what it is
You tried something. It didn't work.
That's a failure.
And that's completely fine.
Being a successful entrepreneur isn't about hiding failure or rebranding it with cute phrases.
It's about:
- Accepting it happened
- Understanding the tiny thing that worked
- Bouncing back to the next thing
- Not letting it define you
The most successful founders I know aren't the ones who never fail.
They're the ones who fail, admit it, and keep building anyway.
"Success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm." — Winston Churchill
That quote gets it right. It doesn't pretend failure doesn't exist.
Every time I think about this, I also get reminded of this iconic tweet by Pieter:
Failure vs. being a Failure
There's a critical difference:
Experiencing failure = an event
Being a failure = an identity
One is temporary. The other is permanent.
Successful people experience the first but reject the second.
My failure resume
If I were honest about my career, my failure resume would be 5x longer than my success resume:
- Projects that got no traction
- Products no one wanted
- Marketing campaigns that flopped
- Hires that didn't work out
And I'm not "grateful" for each failure.
Some just sucked.
But I'm still here. Still building.
When you accept that failure is normal:
> You move faster
> You build resilience
> You take more risks
> You stop perfectionism
> You judge yourself less harshly
Stop pretending failure doesn't exist.
Stop rebranding it as "just experience."
Instead:
- Call it what it is
- Accept it as part of the journey
- Get back to building
Hit reply and tell me about your biggest failure. No sugar-coating allowed 👇🏻
Tweet of the week
The only fitting tweet for this week’s edition:
I will see you next week!
Until then,
Keep building (and failing forward)
Tibo 💻
P.S. If you've never truly failed, you're probably not taking enough risks.
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