What helps you turn failure into progress as an entrepreneur?

Erin Kelly

Co-Founder and CEO · Askpolly

Stick it out

Erin Kelly says to stick it out through the troughs, saying many founders give up too early and that this advice got her through hard times.

Robert Kiyosaki

Founder · Rich Dad Company

Learn from your mistakes

Robert Kiyosaki says to learn from your mistakes, reasoning that people learn by making mistakes—like babies falling while learning to walk.

The answer starts at 12:24.

Marc Minor

Cofounder and CEO · Higharc

Learn quickly

Marc Minor says the biggest advice he can give is to start learning as fast as possible and focus on your slope rather than your intercept, because nobody knows what they're doing when starting a company.

The answer starts at 15:19.

Jon Lensing MD

Co-Founder and CEO · OpenLoop

Always be experimenting

Jon Lensing MD says the practice is to always be experimenting and trying things, because most might not work, but the ones that do can get you to another level.

Sam Kroonenburg

CEO & Co-Founder · Cuttable

Stick to the vision

Sam Kroonenburg says sticking to the vision and having conviction in it helped, asking whether the company is making progress toward that vision. He notes it’s easy to get tied down in the weeds when money is coming in.

The answer starts at 25:55.

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Andrew Feldman

Founder and CEO · Cerebras

maintain a naive can‑do attitude

Andrew Feldman says you need a naive can-do attitude, because once you build up scar tissue from seeing how hard ventures are, otherwise you just don't attempt it again.

Scarlett Stanhope

Founder & Financial Empowerment Coach · The Biz Hippie | Empowered Abundance

Changing perspective

Scarlett Stanhope says the simplest practice is changing your perspective on what progress, growth, and momentum look like, since beating yourself up slows you down and setbacks are a normal part of building momentum.

Dan Martell

Founder & CEO · Martell Ventures

Ask what problem people already pay to solve

Dan Martell says he changed the question to what problem people are already paying someone else to solve, and that question allowed him to build his first real company by following the money to find customers.

The answer starts at 1:33.

Daniel Lubetzky

Host

grit, wit, and fit

Daniel Lubetzky says one lesson is that grit is not enough: you also need wit and fit, because hard work must be paired with strategic creativity and a product that fits what consumers want.

Sarah Buchner

Founder & CEO · Trunk Tools, Inc.

data‑driven decisions

Sarah Buchner says she makes data-driven decisions when she gets overwhelmed, and cites using that approach during COVID to decide to stay.

The answer starts at 27:02.

Ryan Shearman

CEO & Co-founder · Loa Carbon

Fail fast, learn and move

Ryan Shearman says failure is tuition and fear of failure is the real failure, so he urges people to fail fast, learn the thing and move, since not failing means not pushing hard enough.

The answer starts at 30:45.

Crystal Bell

Founder & Chief Clarity Officer

learning how to start

Crystal Bell says learning how to start has helped her in her later executive career, saying it gives her empathy for people who are brand new to their career or area.

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Kevin Gianni

Co-Founder and CEO

Stay involved in problem‑solving

Kevin Gianni says the practice is to stay involved in problem-solving, because issues always come back to the founder, so you get better at handling them and build resilience.

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Forrest Li

Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer · Sea Limited

Never give up

Forrest Li says his answer is to never give up, saying he never once considered quitting and that if you trust yourself and keep going, there is always a way.

Sridhar Ramaswamy

Chief Executive Officer · Snowflake

Believe you can do something better

Sridhar Ramaswamy says founders need to believe they can do something better, saying every startup is an act of believing and that people are more than their failures.

Jesse Stein

Founder & CEO · Hermetic Ai

Double down on what's working

Jesse Stein says one key is to double down and triple down on what's working, because entrepreneurs get distracted by the shiny and new instead of riding what works.

capacity to take pain

Travis Kalanick says the capacity to take pain is the lesson, reasoning that entrepreneurs take on a life of adversity and overcoming it until it becomes normal.

Gyve Safavi

Co-Founder & CEO · SURI

Focus on solutions

Gyve Safavi says his best tip is to not get low when things go wrong and instead focus on what the solution is now, since their biggest mistakes become their biggest learnings.

Eldar Sadikov

Co-Founder & CEO · Field Materials Ai

Learning from failure

Eldar Sadikov says learning from failure helped him most, because failure teaches more than success: you learn by failing, working on your mistakes, and coming back stronger.

Jay Shetty

Co-Founder · Juni Adaptogenic Sparkling Tea

Staying in pain

Jay Shetty says the practice is staying in the painful third stage, because staying in pain gives you the catalyst to learn how to get out of pain.

Colin Zima

Co-Founder, CEO · Omni

Daily reflection on value added

Colin Zima says to reflect daily on whether you made the company more valuable, and if not, what you should have done, because the company only gets more valuable based on what you do.