Over the years, after talking with tens of thousands of entrepreneurs, artists and creatives, almost every success story we’ve heard has been filled with stories of failure. Unfortunately, in our view the media rarely covers these parts of the story – instead we often read summaries that make it seem like success happened “overnight.” However, what we’ve learned in our conversations with so many successful folks is that failure is core ingredient in the recipe for future success. Below, we’ve shared some fascinating stories of failure from folks who have ultimately found great success.
Kenetia Lee
There is a quote that I live by, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill
Since starting this business in 2016, I’ve felt like everyday I receive an education in resilience and courage. I learned early on opportunities are always lurking right around the corner and if I can find the courage to show up and continue to sharpen our tools (staff/operations/processes), something will present itself. Read more>>
Alexa Kline
Several years ago I moved across the country From Detroit to Los Angeles. For the longest time, I had been longing to get back to Los Angeles, which has always felt like home to me so naturally I was filled with vigor and determination. At the time, my intention was to move with a job so I had an opportunity to ground me and of course ensure my bills were paid. I was interviewing a ton, however nothing seemed to land. Finally, an opportunity presented itself and the interview process moved fairly quick. Read more>>
Jackie Sanders
We have entered an era that invites authenticity and vulnerability. Leaders far and wide preach the value of failure and hardship as the pathways to learning and success. But we generally talk about failure when we are on the other side. The CEO of Nvidia, Jensen Huang, talks about the essentiality of failure and his hopes that graduating elite students feel lots of pain and suffering…so they may be successful. I see his point. If everything comes easily, you may struggle to overcome life’s inevitable failures. However, I can’t help but notice that he speaks freely at this very time because his company is currently the epitome of success. Would his words be so profound if shared by someone who just lost it all? I want to say “yes.” But history isn’t so kind to those in the midst of failure. You only need to look at the most decorated athlete of our time, Simone Biles, and the road she has traveled over the past 4 years, along with her much-anticipated appearance in Paris, to see why this perverse opinion can feel so real. We tend to evaluate failure after success (or true crushing defeat), not in its midst. But, in the thick of failure, we uncover its most critical ingredient—resilience. It’s not the failure but the resilience born from it that is the secret to achievement and success. Read more>>
Angela Sokolova
After decades of working as an energy healer, QiGong instructor, and coach, I found myself at the age of 52 in a deep health crisis in 2019. My lifelong Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) and autoimmune illness had become so severe that I was bedridden for months and literally dying. I felt like a complete failure as a coach, mother, and wife. My marriage collapsed, my son dropped out of college, and my daughter, instead of focusing on her own life, had to take care of me. It was unbearably hard to become a burden to others. I felt ashamed that I couldn’t prove by my own example that the healing tools I believed in so much work. It was very hard not to give in to pain and give up my fight for health. At some point, I had to make a choice: either die early like my father or commit to full recovery, reclaim my life, and continue being a mother to my children. Read more>>
Brandi Nichole
My moment of what I experienced a failure moment in business, but it was one of the greatest lessons in business for me. I have experienced six figures in the negative -$189,000 in business before ever experiencing six figures in the positive $187,000, 11 years later. Here’s what happened. 2008, I opened my 1st salon, Studio 77, in Owings Mills, MD. For me to get established, I had an investor who invested $20,000. I later experienced the investor coming to me with a contract, which was a red flag because it was on neon green and pink paper. Fast forward, I accepted the money, only to wake up one morning to a phone call from my stylist and was told to come to the salon IMMEDIATELY. When I arrived, everything had been taken out of my salon. The investor robbed me and a stylist who was booth renting. Due to my having a 5-year lease, I tried to start over with the insurance money; being pregnant and going through something traumatic like that, I eventually broke the lease and closed my salon completely down in 2010. Almost 12 years later, I opened a thriving hair restoration clinic, The Hair Clinic Rx, which hit 6 figures in the positive 2 years after opening. Read more>>