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.

Sara Burgos

Before I officially opened my business I was doing a lot of “favor” jobs for friends and family. This specific situation was someone who was in need of commissioned artwork for a very specific project. I was new and excited to collaborate with someone outside of my own mind. Despite many meetings and adjustments, at the end of the day the client said to my face “you are not getting my vision. What you’ve made is not what I wanted.” After weeks of work it all came down to “thank you but no thank you.” That was extremely frustrating and humbling and could have been enough for me to believe the little voices in my head that were getting louder chanting, ” See! You’re not made for this. Read more>>

Myesha Thurman

Title: From Poverty to Empowerment: A Journey of Overcoming Adversity with Myesha Thurman Aka: Coach My! Summary: “From Poverty to Empowerment” is a captivating and inspiring memoir that chronicles the life of a resilient woman who defied the odds and triumphed over immense challenges. Growing up in the poverty-stricken neighborhood of South Central Los Angeles(Watts), the CEO/Life Coach of Be You on Purpose Life Coaching Services faced a myriad of obstacles, including emotional and mental abuse, anxiety, and the absence of a supportive family structure. Read more>>

Madison Clark

I was apprehensive to answer this question because as a business owner, and human in general, it is often difficult to highlight when you have made a mistake or failed at something. However, it is important that we, as humans and business owners, learn from our mistakes and failures and use them to push us even further. Personally, I believe I failed at balancing going to college full-time while running my business once life ramped back up post-Covid. It worked for a while as I was still doing classes remotely, but as things started to come back to being in-person, the slope kept getting more and more slippery. Ultimately, I decided I needed to prioritize school and graduate on time, but this was no easy decision. While in undergraduate studies at The University at Albany (SUNY), I studied to become a social worker and I am now currently working towards my Master’s degree, which had been a dream of mine since I was a junior in high school. Read more>>