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.

Ray Fontaine

I’m Ray Fontaine—designer, community organizer, strategist, and serial founder. I’ve built businesses, collectives, coalitions, and cultural campaigns. Some flourished. Some fizzled.

Every, single one shaped the founder I am today.

In the past few years, I’ve been kicking the habit of starting things that don’t exist yet and figuring out the business model later. I’ve dissolved partnerships, restructured businesses, and rebuilt from burnout more times than I can count. Read more>>

Gianna Abreu

Yeah, actually I have a story that means a lot to me. By the grace of God, I graduated a whole year early, at 17.
This past school year was one of the hardest years of my life. I went through a lot. My mom kicked me out of the house, and from there, I was basically just trying to make it on my own. There were days I skipped school just to pick up extra shifts. I was two months behind on my phone bill. I was asking people if I could do their hair, anything I could do to bring in a little money. And on top of that, I deal with severe sleep apnea and narcolepsy, so I was sleeping through 75 to 80 percent of the school day, right at my desk. Read more>>

Sherri Austria

Failure is such a layered thing—it doesn’t always show up as one single moment. For me, this past year has felt like a series of compounding failures: personal, professional, spiritual. It’s been the most difficult chapter of my life—and, strangely, one of the most clarifying. Read more>>

Marie Kuipers

Oh, I’ve failed loads of times, probably more than I’ve not failed! I started two businesses–years apart–that I really believed in. I created beautiful, meticulously designed products that I KNEW people would love if they could just see them. But that’s literally all I knew. I didn’t know that having a beautiful product is not nearly enough…you need to know how to sell it. And I didn’t. (I still don’t.) My mistake was thinking I could make something beautiful and POOF! Success! Not by a long shot. What I should have done was combine my efforts with someone whose specialty it was to sell the beautiful things, and let myself off the hook for that part of the work. I can’t do it to save my life. Read more>>