Jason Fried’s recent talk at Big Omaha caught the attention of David Cohen (my partner in SpringStage).  In his talk, Jason railed against the recently popular meme among entrepreneurs, “Fail Early, Fail Often!” He suggests, ‘this industries obsession with failure has got to stop.’ Check out the video here:

David suggests that Jason might be offering a red herring:

“I think there is some confusion here between “fail early, fail often” and “fail fast.” Failing fast is about the case where you’re on a path that is going to fail and the writing is on the wall. In that context, failing the company fast makes sense.

When people say “Fail early, fail often” I think they generally mean something different. Of course, people aren’t encouraging you to go out and start companies that fail just for the experience of it as if it somehow makes you stronger! Rather, it’s about testing and trying until you get it right - generating an overall success. Think little failures, early and often, and you’ve got the right context for “fail early, fail often.”

That’s what was bugging me. To me the two sayings are used in completely different contexts. Am I right? What does “fail early, fail often” mean to you vs. “fail fast”?”

Failure shouldn’t be your goal, but it doesn’t have to be fatal. David notes, “Asian culture has historically made it shameful to fail.” Failure allows an entrepreneur to push the ‘reset’ button and start over.  If your culture has no such ‘reset’ button the risks entrepreneurs will be willing to take will be MUCH smaller - if failure isn’t an option you won’t take risks, period.

Jason suggests that there is this perverse notion among entrepreneurs and investors, “that you should fail a few times before you succeed.” David contends that he has NEVER come across anyone who thinks like this (me either). Failure is a reality in the startup world - the 90% failure rate is NOT a myth. The point is that we shouldn’t let failure stop us from trying. 

I think Jason may be suggesting that too many entrepreneurs give up too quickly. Of course he is right. Giving up quickly is not a recipe for success. Maybe the meme should be “Take Big Risks Early and Often and Don’t be Afraid to Fail.”



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