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.

Paulina Cla

During a time in intermediate school when I did a friends hair I started to get a lot of recognition. But not so much clientele so I got discouraged and just stopped doing hair all together. Only doing my hair and became a assistant four years later all while being in school. Read more>>

Marie Still

When I first started writing, I simply started. I’ve been a writer is some capacity my entire life, however much of my career has been marketing, so that writing tended to be things like telling a product story, much different from fiction or creative writing. As an avid reader, I figured I’d just give it a go. What I didn’t do was study the craft. My first draft of my first book could be called a failure in a way, however magic happens in our failures. It’s where we learn. I did things a little backwards, but looking back I wouldn’t change the way I approached my fiction writing career. Read more>>

Montshona Ihekweazu

Growing up in San Francisco, things were expensive. My parents, as teachers, did the best they could, but I’d always wanted to make sure that I worked hard in school and got a “good” job so that I didn’t have to struggle as much as they did when I was a child. So when I got into a competitive MBA program for business school, I thought, “This is it.” I was going to make a ton of money, I was going to run all the things, I was really going to get out there and do it. I mean, I was a sociable person, I was witty, I knew how to connect with people when I wanted to. Read more>>