Failure is no stranger to the startup world. Even the best ideas face the scrutiny of hardened cynics and critics.
“It can’t be done!”
“Others have already tried.”
"You’ve failed before!”
The gloomy litany has been played repeatedly.
Yet history shows us that courage, determination, and innovation seem to spring from failure. What else could take a startup from a negligible commodity to a mature and profitable enterprise?
Time and time again, we see that failure breeds the drive to change.
Let’s crack open the history books and look to the past for some amazing examples of people and events throughout history that used failure as a catalyst for success.
1. Abraham Lincoln
We often see our own failures and setbacks as profoundly negative. But take a look at any successful entrepreneur - any leader, really - and you’ll see that the pathway to success is littered with potholes and roadblocks.
Would you expect a man with the following experiences to eventually become successful?
- Lost his first job after a month
- Was defeated for the state legislature that same year
- Failed in business the next year
- Experienced a clinical nervous breakdown
- Ran for Congress three times, once for Vice President – and was defeated all four times
This man’s name was Abraham Lincoln, and despite his repeated failures along the way, he was elected President of the United States in 1860.
He’s widely considered one of the greatest US presidents in history, primarily for his role in leading the country through the Civil War. Lincoln’s war-time decisions weren’t always popular, but he was successful in leading the Union to victory and reuniting the country. His previous failures served him well, building his perseverance and giving him needed experience along with the courage to try again.
2. From Saul to Paul
Agnostic historian Will Durant once wrote:
“With all the authority of his Roman citizenship and the blessing of the Hebrew Sanhedrin, Saul of Tarsus confounded and jailed Christians wherever he went. Christianity, as an organized movement, was on the brink of extinction when Saul experienced a tremendous change of heart.”
“He became Paul, and now used his executive abilities and scholarship to promote the so-called religion of the Christians. Within ten years of his joining the church, it had spread throughout the entire Mediterranean and as far east as India. Any new business could profit from studying Paul’s marketing techniques.”
Paul the Apostle is generally considered one of the most important figures in spreading Christianity, mainly by founding several churches promoting his ministry in Asia and Europe.
Although he had previously jailed and persecuted Christians, Paul drew from his background as a Jew and a Roman citizen to gain the trust and respect of his congregations.
Paul was instrumental in advancing Christianity and bringing it back from the brink through his writings and teachings. He penned 14 of the 27 books of the Bible’s New Testament. You don’t have to be religious to appreciate how one man helped ensure the success of an institution once on the brink of failure.
3. Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison is known for both failure and success. Among his failed inventions are the automatic vote recorder, electric pen, talking dolls, and an ore separator. He was not ashamed of this, as he states in this famous quote: “I have not failed 10,000 times—I’ve successfully found 10,000 ways that will not work.”
Adam Farra, CEO of HostGator, is fascinated with Thomas Edison’s comeback story.
“One of Edison’s greatest achievements had nothing to do with inventing. He had a lifelong feud with Nikola Tesla over the use of Direct Current (DC) as opposed to Alternating Current (AC). In his old age, when he was finally convinced that AC was the best way to conduct electricity over long distances, he went to Tesla and apologized for his pig-headedness."
"Tesla was moved by his obvious sincerity and gave Edison permission to use his AC patents for Edison’s failing utility startup. That gave the ‘startup’ the edge it needed to become one of the biggest utilities on the Eastern Seaboard - today known as Con Edison.”
AC power ultimately won The War of Currents, but Edison’s role in establishing ConEd wouldn’t have been possible without Tesla’s patents.
4. Henry Ford
Spencer Kirk, CEO of ExtraSpace Storage, recently spoke of Henry Ford’s strategy of turning employees into customers by increasing wages:
“Ford Motor Company was about to go under back in 1914 because not enough people were buying their cars. Stock in the company was considered worthless. Henry Ford decided not to lower the price of his vehicles, but instead to raise the hourly wages of his workers to $5 an hour. That pay raise gave all his workers enough income to buy their own Ford. The company took off like a rocket. I admire Ford for his disruptive startup-style thinking.”
Many journalists and business leaders reamed Ford for introducing social welfare policies in a capitalist world. The Wall Street Journal reported that he brought “biblical or spiritual principles into a field where they do not belong.”
Ford had the last laugh, as his business objectives were accomplished through the wage increase: employee turnover dropped and profits soared from $30 million to $60 million in just two years.
5. George Washington Carver
A Tuskegee University publication explains how Carver, born into slavery in 1856, almost single-handedly revived Southern agriculture after the Civil War.
The monoculture of cotton left Southern fields barren, unable to sustain other crops because the soil had been depleted of all nutrients. Many farmers in the post-war South faced eviction and starvation. That’s when Carver turned around their planting strategies. He introduced the idea of rotating crops such as peanuts, cowpeas and sweet potatoes, over several seasons.
Carver’s crop rotation theory was instrumental in the success of agricultural economies of the southern states. The process enabled the soil to replenish and eventually become viable for cotton planting.
Carver dedicated his life to promote the crop rotation methodology, despite being met by ongoing criticism and hostility due to the color of his skin and the innovation of his ideas.
6. The Pet Rock
In 1975 Gary Dahl was an advertising executive with a crazy idea: he believed consumers would pay good money for their very own pet rock, a more convenient companion than a dog or cat.
No bank would loan him a dime to start marketing such a goofy product, so he took out a second mortgage on his house and began advertising in magazines and newspapers. Just as everyone had predicted, the pet rock was a failure. Still, Dahl didn’t see it that way.
With his last $200, Dahl placed a small ad in a Chicago newspaper during the November shopping rush, marketing his pet rock as an ideal Christmas present. The plan worked this time around. Enough people were amused by the idea of giving a piece of granite for the holidays that his company was in the black again by January.
In all, Dahl sold over 1.5 million rocks, making a profit of $2 on each one sold. The fad didn’t last long, but it didn’t need to. Dahl was able to laugh all the way to the bank.
These are just six of many historical examples of ordinary people who took a failing idea and turned it around to make it a success. Dedication, innovation, and commitment are the trend in all of the above stories - qualities that still enable today’s entrepreneurs to get their own startups off the ground.
Have you experienced any notable failures on your way to success? Let us know in the discussion.