It has been noted many times that the attitude to failure is particularly positive in the US where investors prefer to put their money into entrepreneurs who have failed before whereas, in the UK, it places such entrepreneurs on a black list. The times, however, are changing and failure has become a lot more acceptable on this side of the Atlantic.
So failing is a good thing. It provides an opportunity to learn and gain experience to make the next project more successful. Repeat failing, however, could be psychologically and financially damaging and requires the individual to be extremely resilient to overcome the tide.
This is why dealing with failure is a key skill that needs to be developed by our students. Until the point that they reach higher education, most are used to succeeding with an ultimate achievement being entering their university of choice. The vast majority will take their studies in their stride and still not know what it feels like to fail.
Converge Challenge too, has examples of young entrepreneurs who didn’t let failure get in the way of success. Unplaced in the 2013 Converge Challenge with his first invention, Caddie Charger, University of Edinburgh post-graduate, David Hunter re-entered the competition last year with a very different business idea and this time made the final.
David has previously designed products for the medical, military and oil and gas industries and has designed Caddie charge, a device which uses an electric golf trolley’s 12-volt battery to charge smartphones, GPS devices and other small portable electronic products. Not making the final did not sully his entrepreneurial flair. His new business, Shotscope Technologies, is a smart wearable technology that automatically collects sports data. It can be applied to a wide range of sports, although David’s focus is specifically for the golf market.
He never let that initial failure get in the way of bouncing back with a product packed with innovation that now appears to be heading for sure-fire success.
For the full article in The Scotsman please visit here.
