Learning from failures.

It has been almost one year since I last recorded an episode. I have been busy with grad school at NYU. I want to do this more frequently, but I think I have to learn more things before I can articulate my thoughts. 

Anyway, last night I wrote a poem and then recorded it this morning. I like it because it has been quite a long time since I wrote something. So, I wanted to share it here.

This episode is nothing more than an outlet for me to tell you about things happening in my life. A little digression from the norm, if you will.  Allow that, will you?

Visit the podcast homepage: Learning From Failures: https://lfwithkunwar.com 

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The whole idea of the podcast centres around learning from past, mistakes or failures and so how well can I recall things correctly, how well can I tune into my belief system and recognise the faults in it. It revolves around me trying to find the meaning of everything.

And could it be that the whole premise of the show is infected with hindsight bias? Could it be that because I am documenting this, I am not tuning in to the real problems and mistakes but rather I am selecting things that I think would make an okayish podcast and while doing so, I am documenting my bias as well, maybe, stronger than before when I was not recording a podcast.

Could it be that I don’t learn from my failures and make the same mistakes?

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We are prone to biases and even though we have come up with great tools for decision making such as probability theory, statistics, optimisation techniques, logic, and yet since it is computationally expensive, we cannot use it for quick decision making. Then we rely on hunches and instincts. And thus, we introduce bias to the equation. In retrospect, bias is a way for us to quickly make a decision about something. It doesn’t have to be right or wrong.

For some among us, decision making is something that we either will do or have done,  we are more prone to biases than someone who is not that position. As a business owner, it is part of our daily life and so more room for biases to influence our lives and work.

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Validated Learning was coined by a genius entrepreneur, Eric Ries. The definition that Eric gives is somewhat like “validated learning, is the unit of progress in a lean startup”.  

A lean startup, if you don’t know, advocates that entrepreneurs should develop products that users want and that the market will exist as soon as the product is released. The difference between a lean startup and a traditional business is that a traditional business would wait for the product development to be completed and then look for customers. Another major difference is that a lean startup is experimental in its philosophy.

Okay, coming back to validated learning. Validated learning is how we measure our progress. How do we know how much have we learned from our experiences?

These days I say that I have learned a lot from my failed ventures. These days I say a lot that I am learning from failures. But how much of that is true?

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I don’t have to tell you the definition of empathy. But if you don’t understand it, empathy is our cognitive ability to understand and appreciate the feelings and thoughts of others.

Basically, we should be nice to people is what it boils down to, doesn’t it?

Not really. It is essential that we understand where they are coming from. We don’t have to think about the righteousness of others thoughts, just that why are they saying whatever they are saying at that moment.

How does empathy translate to better sales and products? Listen to find out how.

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Today I want to talk about work style an entrepreneur is supposed to have. I don’t need to tell you that it is one of the most important factors that you should consider before starting up. And if you don’t have it already, surely you must change the way you work if you want to start up.

So you have a vision, the passion, creativity but, and this is not the kind of big buts that you would like, but if you don’t have the ethics, if you don’t have the work style of an entrepreneur, it is highly unlikely that you would even start. It is highly unlikely that you would create your first draft.

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There is a joke on Reddit that I wanted to share.

There was once a young man who, in his youth, professed his desire to become a great writer.

When asked to define “Great,” he said, “I want to write stuff that the whole world will read, stuff that people will react to on a truly emotional level, stuff that will make people scream, cry, howl in pain and anger!”

He now works for Microsoft, writing error messages.

If you carefully look around yourself, you would definitely find folks who are working in the shittiest version of their passion. And that’s my argument against passion. For me to fully convey what I mean, I have to first set up the great things passion can make happen and the value it can bring in your life.

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What's the first question you should ask before starting up?

Learning from failures is the story about the mistakes I have made in my entrepreneurship journey and trying to unlearn them. Hi, My name is Kunwar. This podcast is not about the philosophical arguments in failures. This podcast is about unlearning entrepreneurship and going back to the basics. So if this is something you want to hear about and learn with me, you may continue.

Cover Art by: Yugantar Malhotra