So, I failed

My last post was about how I left Imposter Syndrome behind and my next post is to announce that my most recent startup failed. “How do you like them ironies” to adapt one of my favourite movie quotes.

Beyond the humour, I actually found that this experience reinforces the perspective of the last post. We failed to build the business we set out to create, but the endeavour itself was not a failure. In fact, we accomplished a lot (not the least of which was helping people improve their physical and mental health), but we didn’t figure out the business equation in time.

That’s the reality of the entrepreneurial endeavour: you’re in a race against time to complete the equation.

One thing this experience taught me is that a result is never binary. Along the way you’ve had success and failure. We typically think of success and failure as if they are the Income Statement of a business. The Income Statement captures a moment in time, so our fiscal year at Slope was negative.

Zooming out to look at the Balance Sheet tells a different story. It shows the accumulated performance. It also holds the potential for future change- and that is perhaps my favourite part.

One of the other lessons of entrepreneurship (and marathon running) is to keep moving. The best remedy to a setback is to take the next step. So, here we go!