Failing isn’t really a failure
Lessons from a project that society calls a failure
The past year I was working on a personal project called UniBook, where we were developing and testing a simple idea: a platform where university students could rent the books they have at home or the ones they needed for college.
We developed a prototype, got feedback from students and entrepreneurs and we even went to entrepreneurship competitions to sell the idea. However, one year after the beginning of the project, my team and I decided to bring it to an end.
What society could say that is a failure, I don’t see it in that way, I will tell you why.
Projects can fail, but it can be for the better
It’s tough to end a project that we already gave so many hours of our lives to, because we get emotionally attached to it, but think a little bit about it. If you aren’t 100% sure if you should proceed with that project and the cost of ending it is lower than proceeding with it and it went really bad, why will you put more time (and possibly money) in one project that you don’t believe 100%?
We have done that. We had a meeting and when the topic came I understood that what I previously thought that only I believed, was the belief of everyone. If you think the best decision is to stop, say it because you never know when other people are thinking the same and if you all don’t communicate, you will proceed with a project that no one wants to continue, but it continues because no one wants to be the first to say it.
A business can fail, but you can win a team
A business opportunity had ended in that meeting, but I think that a really great team was born.
I think that being honest with each other made us closer, stronger as a team and it made us talk and know better every one of us. I think that tough decisions make your team stronger and closer and the end of a project can be the beginning of a new one. Freeing up time from a not so good project can give you the time you need to apply in a really good one.
An idea can fail, but the experiences and skills you take from that can’t be taken away from you
The idea we had wasn’t really so good as we thought it was. After getting a lot of feedback from students, entrepreneurs and business professionals, we realized that.
However, the skills that we gained in the process were priceless. We had a really good hands-on experience of the entrepreneurship and business world. We had to developed, test and pitch an idea. We had to think about the business model, we had to collect and understand feedbacks and we had to understand each other and work as a team. So yes, in a linear approach to this issue this idea fails, but you can take so many learnings from a failure that it’s almost unfair to call it that.
Why I don’t call it a failure
Yes, it didn’t give us money. Yes, the project ended. Yes, we had good and bad feedback. Yes, it’s tough when you are so emotionally attached and gave it so much of your time, but I would have done it all again.
In the end, I got so many skills, hands-on practice experiences, a stronger team and free time for other projects, that if I look at it, the balance is so much more positive than negative that I can’t call it a failure.
I also think that many times in life (personally and professionally), what we think is a failure is just a matter of perspective. Even when the balance is more negative than positive you can choose to focus on the positive part, you choose.
