Unicorn Tears

FINAL THOUGHTS

In 1914 the larger part of a factory owned by iconic inventor Thomas Edison burnt to the ground. Edison’s reaction was priceless. As the fire still raged he turned to his son and said, ‘Go get your mother and all her friends. They will never see a fire like this!’ Instead of viewing the fire as an unmitigated disaster, the end of the line, Edison saw it as a chance to rebuild, to start afresh. In the years that followed, Edison was more focused and successful than ever.

After reading this book you may think that startup is practically synonymous with failure, and there is some truth in this. The numbers don’t lie. By applying the strategies I have outlined in this book you will be better placed to succeed, yet as a startup founder you need to brace yourself for dealing with failure. The most successful entrepreneurs know that failure is actually part of the game. My favourite entrepreneur, Gary Vaynerchuk, sees it like this: just as there is no ‘undefeated’ fighter in UFC, ‘there is no undefeated in entrepreneurship’.

So let me leave you with a bonus hack for dealing with environments that are susceptible to a lot of failure and a great deal of stress: stoicism. Author and entrepreneur Tim Ferris describes stoicism as the ultimate ‘personal operating system’ for high-stress environments.

Stoicism is a school of philosophy that was popular in the Greek and Roman worlds for more than 500 years up to the third century AD. With a core principle of personal ethics, ...