Failure - we all experience it sometime. And more often than not, we dread even thinking about the idea of failing. The entire society sees the failure to be detrimental to success. From childhood, we are taught to avoid failure. In school, we aim to get As, so that we can get into a good university and get a good job offer.

Daniel Kahneman (who've I met at OurCrowd Conference in Jerusalem this spring) and Amos Tversky, two world-renowned psychologists who won the Nobel Prize for their work, explains that adversity to failure is due to the fact that effect of loss is twice as great as the gain from a win. This finding indicates the great negative impact a loss has on us as individuals are much greater than the impact of a win. Thus, it explains why we as humans would go at lengths to avoid a loss or a failure.

Embracing Failure on the Path to Success

Failure shouldn't be avoided; it should be welcomed. In fact, failure might just be the quickest path to success. It may seem counterintuitive, but there are arguments to this. If it weren't for the failures in business--and the lessons learned from them--we'd still be stagnating.

For anyone, failure allows to find out where the weak spots are, where you're ignorant, and what skills you or your team need to learn. It shows what you need to do to scale your business--and the faster business owners can learn that the faster they'll succeed.

Alternatively, avoiding failure can cause a business to stagnate and fizzle out. It means you're never taking risks, and therefore, you're missing opportunities. But there is another, more critical phenomenon: The more you avoid failure, the more likely it is that failure will happen in a way that will completely devastate your business. Learning how to bounce back from failures at an early age (in life or business) helps prepare you for anything down the road.

During the Startup Grind event, we will talk with our Speakers: Joshua Burke and Leo Mart about their experience in the topic.

About Joshua Burke:

Joshua Burke is the Deputy Senior Commercial Officer serving in the US Embassy in Bucharest, Romania. In this role he supports U.S. companies growing in Romania and Moldova and helps firms from these countries invest into America. Prior to serving in Bucharest, Josh advanced commercial and trade policy issues in Ankara, Turkey.

Before joining the Foreign Commercial Service, Joshua worked as a strategy and operations consultant. Josh continues to leverage this experience by developing systematic, data driven strategies and frameworks to guide clients and to shape trade policy.

Josh first experienced life overseas while serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Romania (2002-2004) where he worked with local government and businesses on economic development issues. After completing his service, Josh launched his own consulting business and continues to carry an entrepreneurial spirit to his assignments. Joshua Burke has earned an BS in Management from Iowa State, an MBA from the University of Notre Dame, and a Mastering Trade Policy certificate from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Josh has started several charitable enterprises and served on Boards of non-profits. He completed his first half Ironman triathlon in 2019, and is married with two daughters. 

About Leo Mart:

Leo is a serial entrepreneur and founder of WiseVoice AI, a company awarded the Seal of Excellence by the European Commission in 2019.  Both European High Representatives: Carlos Moedas - Commissioner for Research Science and Innovation and Corina Cretu - Commissioner for Regional Policy recommended the MagicBot project (a virtual therapy assistant that helps patients with cancer and their families) for funding after participating in Europe most competitive innovation program- Horizon 2020.

The format of the event:

18:00 - 18:45 - Registration & Welcome drinks & snacks;

18:45 - 18:50 - Announcement on the Global Conference 2020 organized by Startup Grind in partnership with Google for Startups in Silicon Valley;

18:50 - 19:00 - Introduction on the topic by Mircea Moraru - M&A Senior Associate at International Law Firm CMS (our global sponsor);

19:00 - 20:00 - Panel Discussions with Joshua Burke & Leo Mart, moderated by Dani Dumitrescu

- During the panel, we will use the mentimeter.com App for interacting with the public on the failure topic.

- In the end, we will take some questions from the public.

20:00 - 21:00 - Pizza & Beer & Networking.