What mindset about failure helped you succeed as entrepreneur?

Robert Kiyosaki

Founder · Rich Dad Company

Learn from mistakes

Robert Kiyosaki says the lesson is to learn from your mistakes, because without mistakes you don't learn anything.

The answer starts at 12:24.

Sam Parr

Co-Founder · Hampton

Keep moving forward

Sam Parr says his mindset is to just fix the problems he has and keep moving forward, saying he finds joy in that.

Mark Pincus

Founder & Chairman · Zynga

Deserve the chance to be wrong

Mark Pincus says founders deserve the chance to be wrong—to bet on themselves whether right or wrong, without having to convince their board or peers, which he calls the essence of founder mode.

Marc Minor

Cofounder and CEO · Higharc

Failure is learning

Marc Minor says failure is never failure—it’s always learning.

The answer starts at 17:17.

Jon Lensing MD

Co-Founder and CEO · OpenLoop

Embrace micro failures

Jon Lensing says he embraces micro failures, which he calls expected while trying to avoid macro failure, because always experimenting means most things might not work but the ones that do can get you to another level.

Jason Calacanis

Bestie · All-In Podcast

Grit matters

Jason Calacanis says grit matters more than last week's traction, since knowing a founder won't give up is probably half the battle of backing someone.

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Andrew Feldman

Founder and CEO · Cerebras

Naive can‑do attitude

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

Scarlett Stanhope

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

Accept setbacks as normal

Scarlett Stanhope says to accept that taking steps back is a normal part of growth, because beating yourself up about it slows you down.

Dan Martell

Founder & CEO · Martell Ventures

Love customers' problems

Dan Martell says he should have fallen in love with his customers’ problems instead of his solution, because he needed to learn what they saw as a painkiller and how they wanted it solved.

The answer starts at 17:00.

Ryan Shearman

CEO & Co-founder · Loa Carbon

Failure is tuition

Ryan Shearman offers that failure is tuition: fear of failure is the real failure, and if you're not failing, you're not pushing hard enough.

The answer starts at 30:33.

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Forrest Li

Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer · Sea Limited

Never give up

Forrest Li says the lesson is to never give up, explaining that throughout his journey he never once thought about quitting and that if you keep going, problems sometimes solve themselves.

Stan Suchkov

CEO · Evolve

Be brave to admit failure

Stan Suchkov says to be brave enough to admit failure, because pivoting shows you're focused, want results, and aren't scared to admit you did something wrong.

Sridhar Ramaswamy

Chief Executive Officer · Snowflake

We are more than our failures

Sridhar Ramaswamy's lesson is that we are more than our failures; that conviction in who you are, he says, makes you believe in life and act with purpose.

Julia Hartz

Board Of Directors · Four Seasons Hotels And Resorts

Don't treat rejection as final

Julia Hartz says that even if you get a flatout no, you should not treat that as a never, because if you retrench, work hard, and prove out your thesis, you deserve to update everyone.

Sasha Orloff

Member of Staff · Accrual

Stay optimistic and embrace imperfection

Sasha Orloff advises founders to stay strong and optimistic and not expect their business to be perfect, since founders can have their best and worst day in the same day and no investor thinks a business is perfect.

Embrace pain

Travis Kalanick says his mindset is the capacity to take pain—being able to take more pain than the other guy and prove it—because entrepreneurship means constant adversity and overcoming it.

Gyve Safavi

Co-Founder & CEO · SURI

Focus on solutions

Gyve Safavi says he tries not to get low when things go wrong in a startup and instead asks how they are going to solve it, since the biggest mistakes often bring learnings that make the company better.

Gary Vaynerchuk

Chairman of VaynerX, CEO of VaynerMedia · Vaynerx

How you clean it up

Gary Vaynerchuk says it's not the mistake that matters but your follow-up: "It's not how you spill the milk, it's how you clean it up" — how you handle the error afterward.

John Brewton

Writer & Founder · Operating by John Brewton

Identify why you failed and adjust

John Brewton says the lesson is to identify why something failed and change what you do next, because failure itself has almost no value—people can fail the same way for years.

Temirlan Rakhmetzhanov

Co-Founder & CEO · Armeta

Validate with market before building

Temirlan Rakhmetzhanov says his previous startups failed because founders build without telling the market or getting feedback, so he now asks clients whether they would buy a feature before developing it — selling first, then building.