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When failure is just the first step to great business success
It's almost a cliché nowadays that failure in a hi-tech business is the best training ground for building a successful one. Yet the media and the public alike tend to sneer at these misfires with new ventures or products. In fact, Silicon Valley is littered with failures that turned out to be the precursors of spectacular success. It is the stuff of legend that WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton was turned down for jobs at Twitter and Facebook in 2009, the year he and partner Jan Koum launched their start-up. A mere five years later, the pair sold their business to Facebook for $19-billion. Acton's tweet after his second rejection could well have been about his disappointment, but instead communicates an optimism that will go down in business history: "Facebook turned me down. It was a great opportunity to connect with some fantastic people. Looking forward to life's next adventure." This story came to mind when I read The Five Year Mark by South African entrepreneur Mike Saunders, fou...
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