What Do We Learn from Failure?


Failure cannot be avoided. As long as there are people who choose to start a business, there will be a share of failure. According to this, every company founder should be aware of the fact that an important factor for establishing a company is the fault tolerance. But what does this word “fault tolerance” mean in the context of a company foundation?

The term “fault tolerance” generally describes a process of recognizing, accepting, and learning from errors. This can be used to avoid errors which can lead to a negative situation output. This means that people with a high degree of fault tolerance tend to follow the motto “Try again, fail again, fail better”


It is by no means the case that every successful founder was already successful with his first company. The list of those who needed some attempts until they became successful entrepreneurs is almost endless. And most of them made one or more of the above listed mistakes and learned from these mistakes to finally build a successful business.

Last but not least, the failure of a company foundation in the US, especially in the Silicon Valley, is considered an award To demand in return that one should not deal with failure, but only with the successful enterprises and imitate what they did right, would not be enough.

The experience of learning from one’s own mistakes cannot be taken over by someone else. Furthermore, it is dangerous for an entrepreneur to go a prefabricated, tailor-made way. Every successful company founder can tell his own story of failure, and every success story of large companies differs. The reason why successful entrepreneurs and companies stand out is precisely because they have not imitated, but that they have gone their own way.
There is no way around it: If a company is to be founded—and a healthy national economy needs innovative startups in the long run—then failure must be accepted as a secondary effect. And this acceptance has to go beyond encouraging words for the failed. Company founders need more capital, they must also be promoted when they have failed. Failure mustn’t be a flaw in one’s CV, but must be integrated as a step on the road to success.

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