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Ask HN: Are you embarrassed by your failed projects?

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Re: Ask HN: Are you embarrassed by your failed projects?

#21

Post by rechtaht »

This is going to sound a little trite, but it's only a failure if you didn't learn from it.

Typically my list of failed projects informs my pitch about the next one. "My next project is more interesting from my past projects because in my past attempts I learned x"

People often understand taking knowledge from one experience and applying it to the next one. And I would argue that's what you should be doing if you want to better your chances of success.

Your path, your experiences, all tell a story and inform your future projects. It's up to you to make that a positive story.

Re: Ask HN: Are you embarrassed by your failed projects?

#22

Post by jacquesm »

I'm embarrassed by those projects that failed where I failed to apply lessons learned in the past, but for the most part those are incidents.

The majority of the 'public failures' failed for new or unexpected reasons and I have absolutely no qualms about being open about it or analyzing them (in private or in public).

I'm far more suspicious of people that have never failed or that feel that don't want to talk about their failures. Pointing the finger of 'fail' at yourself and taking responsibility for mistakes made is a great way to improve your game and to increase the chances of eventual success.

As for dealing with this when promoting the 'next thing', I don't make any links between projects and I try to keep my person 'out' of the day to day running of any of the projects that I'm involved in, for the most part I'm the invisible man. So whatever failures there were if they might be problematic it does not carry over. But I'm actually not aware of any of that. Most projects, even the failed ones will leave you with the net positive goodwill that results from trying and trying hard.

Re: Ask HN: Are you embarrassed by your failed projects?

#24

Post by dlevine »

Are you embarrassed because you feel like you could have put more into the projects that failed, or just because they failed?

Failure is perfectly acceptable - if you ask any successful entrepreneur, they likely had a string of failed projects.

However, it's important to make sure that the failures bring your forward rather than setting you back. Make sure that you learn something from every failure, and don't repeat past mistakes.

If your problem has been building a project and then discovering that people aren't interested, do the customer development before you build the product. Or build something that you desperately want to use.

Re: Ask HN: Are you embarrassed by your failed projects?

#25

Post by ashleyreddy »

My first business idea was making scrolling LED displays. I tried this about 20 years ago. At the time I didn't realize that almost ALL electronics are manufactured off shore and that it would be impossible to compete. We did make a prototype but that as far as we went with the business. I learned that just because I could make something doesnt mean that I can build a business around it. There is a lot to learn before one becomes well versed in the field of startups. The word failure is not appropriate for our field. I think not yet succeeded is better.

Re: Ask HN: Are you embarrassed by your failed projects?

#28

Post by aaronblohowiak »

edw519 wrote: post #13

Never. If the project was a success, I did it for the project. If it wasn't, I did it to learn and grow. Either way, nothing to be embarrassed about. (Am I embarrassed by the code I wrote 3 years ago? Now that's another story.)

"No failure, only feedback." Now, you have to have a retrospective and really learn your lessons for this to work but it can be a very liberating mindset.

Re: Ask HN: Are you embarrassed by your failed projects?

#29

Post by peteypao »

It helps to know that the success for startups is very low to begin with. That being said, once you graduated to a certain level of mastery, then that's when you win.

I equate it to the days when I tried my hand at pickup. Sure, 99 out of 100 girls will reject you, but if 1 girl says yes, then it would definitely be worth it. It all depends on whether you can keep on going, despite every failure. The goal is not to be fazed by failure/rejection.

Re: Ask HN: Are you embarrassed by your failed projects?

#30

Post by rechtaht »

mattblalock wrote: post #17
edw519 wrote: post #13

Never. If the project was a success, I did it for the project. If it wasn't, I did it to learn and grow. Either way, nothing to be embarrassed about. (Am I embarrassed by the code I wrote 3 years ago? Now that's another story.)

See this is based on the assumption that "you did it for the project" or "to learn and grow", but failure (for me) is based on goals and one's inability to meet them. If your goal was to "create a project", you have succeeded even in the face of "failure", unless you never created your project. Most of us, however, have goals: get 100 users, design a great user experience, play 45 shows in a band, get a record deal,…

I think you're right. I also think that's where the culture of learning is really powerful. You do need to set the expectation ahead of time that the real objective is learning or validated knowledge.

I have a company and we set goals, but our overarching goal is to learn. If we fail at meeting a metric there is always something to learn and take forward to the next attempt.

The only failure we define as a company is not setting your goals high enough to push yourself, or not taking your learning forward. That's how you build a culture that is willing to take risks. Defining failure as not meeting your metrics isn't productive.

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