From failure to success: Brad Feld shares how to achieve it

During INCmty 2021, Tec de Monterrey’s entrepreneur fair, businessman Brad Feld said that one of the challenges of entrepreneurship is to take failure as a way to build something incredible.

“In entrepreneurship, failure shouldn’t be discarded as if it weren’t important, but rather the importance of the context should be redefined to create something incredible,” he said.

Feld is also a writer and speaker on the topics of venture capital investing and entrepreneurship. He is co-founder of Foundry Group, a platform that helps entrepreneurs turn their ideas into leading market-defining businesses.

“Failure is a very interesting word because when you talk about failure, it has a negative connotation in many cultural norms.

“But, if you think about it in terms of creating something new, whatever you want that to be, a product, technology, or a company, failure is necessary for success,” he said.

Independence of Mine and Other Lessons from Nietzsche is the name of Brad Feld’s discussion in which he shared this and other ideas related to the philosophy of entrepreneurship.

“Failure is a major challenge for entrepreneurs. We can talk about mindset theory and power and how it’s connected to the next steps of entrepreneurship,” said Mario Adrián Flores, Vice-President of the Tec’s Monterrey Region and moderator of this discussion.

When passion and obsession unite

“Why does Nietzsche say it’s important for entrepreneurs to be obsessed with their idea and not simply passionate about it?” Feld asked.

“Entrepreneurs have to be passionate about their ideas. Obsession has to do with understanding why you were put on this planet and knowing what it is you’re going to solve.

“When you find an entrepreneur who’s obsessed with what they’re working on, it’s very powerful,” he explained.

The entrepreneur added that, according to Nietzsche, “The passion which seizes the noble man is a peculiarity that can become a divining of values for which scales have not yet been invented.”

Brad Feld further explained that the will to power is quite a complicated aspect as entrepreneurs tend to be very powerful in the creation of what they’re doing.

Fredrich Nietzsche was a 19th century German philosopher whose work had a great influence on Western thought and culture.

“When you find an entrepreneur who’s obsessed with what they’re working on, it’s very powerful.” - Brad Feld

To get to the top, you must start from the bottom

“One of our jobs as entrepreneurs is to recognize the impact we could have on people’s lives, but to get to that point, we must first experience exponential growth,” said Feld, who is also an investor.

“If we think about the most successful companies, Google, Apple, Facebook, we have to recognize they all began with a few guys who had an idea, and they began as small startups,” he said.

He recognized that these companies didn’t follow a straight line to success, that it was a rollercoaster ride to achieving their goals.

“Really successful businesses are ones that endure huge amounts of conflict, huge challenges. In a lot of cases, they emerge through great stress,” he said.

“This notion that from the depths rises greatness is a very powerful and inspiring way for entrepreneurs to comport themselves,” he said.

“If we think about the most successful companies, Google, Apple, Facebook, we have to recognize they all began with a few guys who had an idea, and they began as small startups.”

About INCmty

Canada is participating as a guest country at this year’s ninth INCmty, Tec de Monterrey’s entrepreneur fair.

“INCmty provides all entrepreneurs the opportunity to be inspired by great examples. Many people gather here looking to create, change, and transform things,” said Josué Delgado, director of INCmty.

“(Participants) will meet people like them and will be able to network with the right people. It’s a time for them to find capital, potential investors, or clients,” added Delgado.

The event is taking place virtually from November 8 to 10 to enable synergies between entrepreneurs and business experts from both countries.

What’s more, participants will have the chance to learn more about the new trends in innovation, business, and technology.

This year, there are 170 activities and 200 speakers participating.

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