How to Fail: 25 Secrets Learned through Failure

1. Dither, dither, dither; plan, plan, plan.
Instead: Fail fast. Fire, aim, repeat.

2. Postpone hard decisions until you have to make hard trade-offs.
Instead: Make decisions earlier to create options and build flexibility.

3. Copy tactics.
Instead: Create strategies.

4. “Fight the good fight.”
Instead: Pick the right battles, at the right time, with the right people.

5. Solve your problems.
Instead: Solve their problems.

6. Focus on the long-term.
Instead: Focus on the short-term.

7. Build prototypes, mockups and samples.
Instead: Start building in a format and medium as close to the finished product as possible, and iterate, iterate, iterate.

8. Let data make decisions.
Instead: Use data to guide decisions.

9. Give customers everything they want.
Instead: Listen to customers, then throw (almost) all of it away.

10. “New, New, New!”
Instead: F*** new. What’s different? What’s better?

11. Leave money on the table.
Instead: Raise all the capital you should each time you’re at the trough.

12. Optimise for the best-case scenario.
Instead: Build redundancy and plan for the worst-case scenario.

13. Over-promise, over-sell, under-deliver.
Instead: Over-promise, over-sell, over-deliver.

14. Be stubborn in the face of failure.
Instead: Be determined in the face of disbelief.

15. “We can build a successful business by capturing just X% of the market.”
Instead: Sell to one customer. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

16. Depend on outsiders to make key decisions or develop key components.
Instead: Make your own key decisions and build your own core competitive advantages.

17. “I know more than anyone else.”
Instead: If you think you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re the fool.

18. A unanimous decision means we’re all right.
Instead: If everybody agrees, you’re probably all wrong.

19. Hire resumes.
Instead: Hire people: curiosity, passion, interpersonal skills and drive.

20. Create rules to outline decisions.
Instead: Create incentives to guide decisions.

21. Reward activity.
Instead: Reward achievements, both failures and successes.

22. Meet to discuss.
Instead: Meet to decide.

23. Work under “understandings”.
Instead: Create legal agreements as soon as possible.

24. Everything matters.
Instead: Recognize the difference between “penny-wise” and “pound-foolish”.

25. Treat these secrets as absolutes.
Instead: Know all the rules completely so you can break them perfectly.