5.3 We embrace failure

The third reason why dyslexics make great entrepreneurs is we embrace failure making us super resilient and persistent. When you ask ChatGPT to give you the best quotes on failure leading to success, it’s no surprise that nearly all top ten are by dyslexic thinkers. My personal favourite is 'Only those who dare to fail greatly, can ever achieve greatly', from Robert F. Kennedy. I think this sums up a dyslexic entrepreneur and startup mentality perfectly.

Starting your own business and running it successfully is never a straight path, whether you’re dyslexic or not. There are obstacles to overcome, setbacks to recover from and mistakes, however unintentional, to be made. But what distinguishes dyslexic entrepreneurs from others is that dyslexics are not afraid to fail. And when it happens they're good at bouncing back fast, seeing their failures as an opportunity to learn.

Dyslexic thinkers naturally have a growth mindset and we all know how important that is. Perhaps this comes from our school days when we get used to failing and bouncing back. Although what comes through time and time again in dyslexic entrepreneurs is a curiosity and an impatience to get started. That results in a willingness to just give it a go and see where it takes you. The willingness to fail means we build up high level of resilience quickly and become skilled at finding workarounds to problems when we face them. And apply this resilience, perseverance and flexibility as we go through the entrepreneurial journey. Let's hear again from entrepreneur and star of US show, 'Shark Tank', Barbara Corcoran.

When you fail early at something and something so important as school, which is how children define themselves. Until they get out of school that's kind of the definition of who they are. Failing is like second nature. You almost build up a hard crust and it just doesn't bother you. I always like to think of myself as a jack-in-the-box. You hit me on the head and I bounce up and I say, 'Hit me again'. Most people would say that's stupid, but I say, that's a gift that you can take that hit again and again and again because it's no big deal, you've been doing that since you were a little kid.

Yes, it's a fantastic asset that we build up.

Only in hindsight, I might add and there's the rub.

Yes, exactly. So what would you say to people who are starting a business, because entrepreneurs, we all fail, don't we? It's something that happens, and I know that Richard Branson and all of the people we've interviewed, talk about failure being important. What would you say to people about failure?

Well, failure, if you want to get ahead in life, is half of what life is. If you don't know how to fail and get back up, you don't move ahead in anything. So it's the greatest attribute to have.

Rob Law, the entrepreneur and Founder of Trunki, the ride-on suitcase that revolutionised how kids travel, is also no stranger to setbacks. Despite being rejected on 'Dragon's Den' and being told by one of the dragons that his company was worthless, he went on to sell 5 million suitcases in over 100 countries and won more than 120 awards. In 2022 he sold his company for over £12 million. He said 'Being an entrepreneur, you have to be incredibly passionate and believe in what you're trying to achieve, but you also have to be incredibly thick skinned and be driven and determined to get your product to market.' Rob talked about the importance of developing resilience in our podcast, Lessons in Dyslexic Thinking.

Resilience, just in life in general, is an absolute key skill-set to develop and it's really what makes us who we are. It's really character building and it's how we learn. So when things don't go well that's such an important life lesson. Because I've faced quite a few challenges, I've ended up changing my mindset to think of challenges as things you can just face straight up to. Try and overcome them. You quite often don't end up exactly what you were hoping to get to, but you get the other side of the challenge and then you can carry on with your journey. So flipping challenges from, 'Oh, I’m going to throw the towel in. I don't want to face it. I'm going to put it off', to actually squaring straight onto it and taking it head on.

The one other key lesson I learned around challenges is you’ve got to spend your energy wisely. It takes a huge amount of energy to overcome these challenges, and actually you can't influence some things. So you can only spend that energy on what you can influence. Before I went on Dragons’ Den, we had the hand luggage ban. So it was at the height of the liquid bomb threat in 2006 and it's when we ended up having to put our liquids in a clear plastic bag. So I had just started Trunki, looking forward to the summer peak sales season. And I got home one night, and there was a news flash that the secret services had foiled a liquid bomb threat and we were all safe, however, the government have decided to ban hand luggage.

Once again, my face turned white, I turned to my flatmate and said, 'What did he just say?' 'The government has just banned hand luggage'. I said, 'I've just launched a hand luggage business. My product is banned in my home market, that's insane'. So I tried to contact the Department of Transport, British Airways, Heathrow, all these different places, and very quickly realised there's no way I can influence this outcome. What I can influence is my costs and my marketing message. So it was a big pivot to marketing Trunki to staycations and I actually started exporting a lot more around the world where they didn't have the hand luggage ban.

But using that energy wisely and just trying to put aside the things you can't influence. Like Covid, a massive problem for us, a huge drop in sales. But I'm not going to influence when that travel ban is going to be lifted, what I can influence is my costs and trying to conserve enough energy for myself and my team, so when it does lift we can bounce back strong.

Setbacks and mistakes will happen for any entrepreneur. But the most important thing is to fail fast and bounce back and see the good that comes from this. Let's hear from Daniel Singer, Founder of Filthy Foods, a gourmet cocktail company, as he explains his approach to failure.

I jump and build my wings on the way down and you hit a lot of branches during that fall. I own the mess ups and I apologise and we move on. There has to be a lot of humility in it, in the mistakes and in the failings. But as long as they're filled with intention and you're doing your best, then you can just own them and apologise and move on. And they're so valuable, so valuable.

We live in a society that seems to be, it doesn't embrace failure in the way that it should, I think as dyslexics we're just experts at failing because we did very early on and we bounce back and it builds our resilience. Everybody needs that don’t they?

Absolutely, as I said, there is no negativity, it's just energy. As I said, you can suffer in it and it can hold you back and you can waste energy on it or you could be grateful for it, and then you could just use it to push you in another direction or to make something better.

Here are three key takeaways from this section. One, dyslexic entrepreneurs embrace failure which means we build high levels of resilience and persistence. Two, when we fail we're good at bouncing back fast, pivoting, learning from our mistakes and finding workarounds. Three, we're keen and impatient which means we lean in, get started, learning and adapting as we go.