Catching Waves and Embracing Wipeouts

The Art of Counting Failures as Stepping Stones on your Entrepreneurial Journey

👋 Hey there, I'm Felix, and welcome to the latest STOKE & FOUNDER's journal entry! I'm stoked to share some surf-inspired startup wisdom I learned while running my startup studio. Get ready to hang-ten and enjoy the ride! 🤙

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Wipeouts Are Surfers Best Friends

Imagine you're standing on the beach, your surfboard in your hand, staring at the ocean and ready to surf. You know that your journey ahead won't be a smooth ride and that you'll encounter more wipeouts than perfect waves. But as a surfer, you also know that each wipeout, each failure, is a lesson pushing you closer to that perfect wave. This perspective of embracing failures and reframing them as integral steps towards success is a practice in mental accounting, a concept brilliantly elaborated by Rolf Dobelli in his book "The Art of the Good Life".

Mental accounting isn't just about crunching numbers; it's about how we perceive our gains and losses. So when I step into the startup world or get on that surfboard, I don't blindly hope for uninterrupted success. Instead, I prepare myself for the reality of the journey, understanding that there will be failures, even multiple ones, and that's perfectly okay.

I expect to wipe out, not once, not twice, but perhaps ten times, even more. This expectation doesn't stem from pessimism but rather from a realistic understanding of the process. When I get hit by the whitewater of the waves the first time, or the fifth time, I'm not discouraged because I accounted for these failures from the very beginning or as Ryan Holiday would say it in one of his books “The Obstacle Is the Way”. They are not unexpected setbacks, but planned stepping stones that I know will lead me to my goals.

The Crucial Mind(re)set

This mental framing is crucial. It helps me (and hopefully you too) accept failures without damaging my morale or deterring my commitment. Rather than perceiving each failure as a loss, I see it as an essential part of my growth, a lesson that teaches me something new about my technique, my strategy, my business model.

Imagine the power of this mind(re)set. If we prepare ourselves mentally for failure, we are no longer disheartened when we face it. Instead, we take it in stride, learn from it, and use it to fuel our future attempts. And when success does come, it's even sweeter, as we understand the journey, the failures, and the hard work it took to get there.

You Are In Good Company

A fantastic example of someone who faced multiple failures before achieving success is Thomas Edison. Known as one of the greatest inventors in history, Edison is famously quoted as saying:

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."

This statement came after years of numerous unsuccessful attempts to invent a commercially viable electric light bulb

As an entrepreneur, this mental accounting is the difference between giving up after a few attempts and persisting until you find the right formula for success. The process of starting a business is similar to learning to surf. You must be willing to fall, to fail, but always to get back up and try again, knowing that each failure is a step towards success.

The Final Strokes

So whether you're a novice surfer preparing to catch your first wave or a founder about to launch your startup, remember to adjust your mental accounts. Embrace the inevitability of failures. Don't just expect them, but plan for them. When failures no longer catch you by surprise, they lose their power to demotivate you. Instead, they become lessons, valuable feedback, pushing you towards your goal. And when you finally ride that perfect wave or see your startup succeed, you'll appreciate the journey, the wipeouts, the failures that led you to that moment of triumph.

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