Ask HN: How do I learn quickly from failure?

#1

Post by suckerfish » Wed, Jun 23, 2010, 8:58 AM UTC

I've heard startup speakers frequently suggest that budding entrepreneurs learn to fail quickly and cheaply. I'm in my first web startup, trying to develop and roll out an Internet web service but getting the technology to work for me seems to be taking much longer than I hoped it would.

Has anyone had similar experiences? I understand there may not be shortcuts around my situation but I'll appreciate any advice or best practices that might help people like myself to keep moving forward.

Re: Ask HN: How do I learn quickly from failure?

#2

Post by aymeric » Wed, Jun 23, 2010, 9:04 AM UTC

1. Find a mentor or join a "mastermind" group to discuss about your challenges with others.

2. Reflect on what you are doing regularly (collectively if you have a team). To learn from your mistakes, you need to be aware of them otherwise you can fail as many times as you want, you won't get much from the experience.

3. Read / learn / educate yourself. By reading about startups / businesses, you will be able to relate to your own current experience and make adjustements. On top of that, I find that reading keep my level of "awareness" higher, it gives me time to reflect on what I do.

4. To fail cheaply, make sure you approach your startup / idea / business in a lean way, avoid upfront costs, avoid long term commitments, etc...

Re: Ask HN: How do I learn quickly from failure?

#3

Post by andre3k1 » Wed, Jun 23, 2010, 11:54 AM UTC

"Insanity is to do the same thing over and over and expect different results."

The point is not to fail quickly, but to keep changing until you succeed.

Re: Ask HN: How do I learn quickly from failure?

#4

Post by pedalpete » Wed, Jun 23, 2010, 7:08 PM UTC

Technology development almost always takes longer than you hope/expect. So don't let that be considered a 'failure'.

If that is the only problem you're having, then see if you can scale back on the project, and define what you can get out in the shortest amount of time.

Also, you said you wanted to 'learn quickly from failure'. I hope that is just a language issue. I don't think you want to learn quickly, as much as fail quickly. There is a big difference. Failing quickly means you don't spend a ton of time on something that won't be a success in the long term. Learning quickly means that you gain the insight from your failure quickly. I don't think the second is nearly as important as the first.