33 Entrepreneurs Share Their Biggest Lessons Learned from Failure

By Brian Honigman, huffingtonpost.com, 27-06-2014

A successful career is like a rollercoaster with many ups and downs, whether you're an employee or an entrepreneur. Understanding how to maintain your success and move past your failures can help you lead a more productive and fulfilling career.

To help provide some insight on how to navigate a career you're proud of, I've asked 33 tech entrepreneurs to share some of their biggest lessons learned from their own failures.

1. Welcome detours and failures with open arms.

Ekaterina Walter is the CMO of Househappy, social media trailblazer, international speaker, an author of the Wall Street Journal bestseller "Think Like Zuck" and co-author of "The Power of Visual Storytelling." Follow her on Twitter.

2. A successful business requires 100% attention, everything else is a distraction.

Jayson DeMers is the founder and CEO of AudienceBloom. Follow him on Twitter.

3. Your company's focus comes with trial and error.

Dan Greenberg is the co-founder and CEO of Sharethrough. Follow him on Twitter.

4. Mistakes will surface new opportunities.

Meridith Valiando Rojas is the co-founder and CEO DigiTour Media. Follow her on Twitter.

5. Agree upon the direction of your company from the beginning with key stakeholders.

Evan White is the president of Evan White PR. Follow him on Twitter.

6. Use your negative experiences to regroup.

Michael A. Stelzner is the CEO and founder of Social Media Examiner and MyKidsAdventures.com. Follow him on Twitter.

7. The stability of your career is under your control.

Kristi Hines is a freelance writer, ghostwriter and professional blogger for Kristi Hines Media. Follow her on Twitter. 

8. Tune out the noise and find your instinct.

Caroline Ghosn is the co-founder and CEO of Levo League. Follow her on Twitter. 

9. Balance taking your time with acting fast.

Matt Galligan is the CEO and co-founder of Circa. Follow him on Twitter.

10. Pay attention to your customers first.

Jon Beekman, a graduate of Stanford Graduate School of Business, is an entrepreneur, the founder and CEO of Man Crates. Follow him on Twitter.

11. Finding success is much easier as a team.

Shane Snow is the co-founder of Contently and author of the upcoming book Smartcuts: How Hackers, Innovators, and Icons Accelerate Success.

12. Use data to help fail less often.

Larry Kim is the founder of WordStream. You can find him on Twitter.

13. The quality of your team will make or break you.

Kiran Bellubbi is the founder and CEO of Applauze. Follow him on Twitter.

14. Avoid a Field of Dreams mentality.

Melisa Singh is the founder of StoryShelter. Follow her on Twitter. 

15. Being adaptable is the real test.

Carrie Kerpen is a self-described (Non)trepreneur, author, keynote speaker, and social media expert. She is the CEO and co-founder of social media agency Likeable Media. Follow her on Twitter.

16. Iterate for different learning styles across your company.

Jonathan Franchell is the founder and principal of Ironpaper. Follow him on Twitter.

17. The worst decision is indecision.

Ryan Harwood is the CEO of PureWow. Follow him on Twitter.

18. Look at failures as merely mistakes.

Jim Belosic is the CEO of ShortStack. Follow him on Twitter.

19. Try to be incredible at one thing.

Brian Wallace is the president of NowSourcing. Follow him on Twitter.

20. Disagreement and conflict are healthy.

Rand Fishkin is the co-founder of Moz and Inbound.org, startup junkie, frequent traveler, blogger, social media addict and evangelist of all things TAGFEE. Follow him on Twitter.

21. Think simple from the start.

Neil Patel is an entrepreneur, investor, advisor and blogger. He started two SaaS analytics companies, CrazyEgg and KISSmetrics. Follow him on Twitter.

22. Tomorrow is always another day.

Scott Gerber is a serial entrepreneur, author (Never Get a 'Real' Job), TV commentator and founder of Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC). Follow him on Twitter.

23. Success is not the natural state of things.

Ted Rubin is a social marketing strategist, keynote speaker, brand evangelist and acting CMO of Brand Innovators. Follow him on Twitter.

24. Push new ideas and projects forward.

Neal Schaffer is a social business coach, consultant, trainer, speaker and author of Maximize Your Social. Follow him on Twitter.

25. Regard failure as a strength and not a weakness.

Rohan Chandrashekhar is the CEO of BUZZVALVE. Follow him on Twitter.

26. Start now!

Wade Foster is the CEO and co-founder of Zapier. Follow him on Twitter.

27. Don't fail alone, find talented rockstars.

Sandi Krakowski is a Forbes Top 20 Social Media Influencer, as well as the president and founder of A Real Change International, Inc and Sandpaper Tablet, Inc. Follow her on Twitter.

28. Letting go of the need to look perfect.

Lewis Howes is an author, Lifestyle Entrepreneur, former pro athlete, world record holder in football and current athlete on the USA Men's National Team for Team Handball. He is the creator of the podcast, the School of Greatness.

29. Failure happens, it's okay.

Patt Flynn is the owner of Smart Passive Income blog and podcast. Follow him on Twitter.

30. Nothing is as bad as it seems.

Gene Marks is the president of the Marks Group, a columnist and speaker. Follow him on Twitter.

31. Get told "no" on a daily basis.

Shafqat Islam is the CEO of NewsCred. Follow him on Twitter.

32. Success isn't necessarily found by being an employee.

Leo Widrich is the co-founder and COO of Buffer. Follow him on Twitter.

33. Be patient and adjust on the fly.

Joe Pulizzi is the founder of Content Marketing Institute and the author of Epic Content Marketing. Follow him on Twitter.

Brian Honigman is a Marketing Consultant, Speaker and Freelance Writer. He's worked with clients like Dell, HubSpot, Adknowledge and Sumall. He's written for Forbes, The Next Web, WSJ and others. Follow him on Twitter. 

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