One of My Businesses Failed. Here’s What You Can Learn From It.
Failure isn’t the end of the story.
It’s the tuition you pay for a better one.
One of my businesses failed years ago, and while it was painful, it became one of the most valuable chapters in my career.
Here are the lessons I wish someone had given me earlier:
1. Get the right projections (and question every assumption).
Revenue projections are just stories we tell ourselves. And if the story is wrong, the whole plan collapses.
Every projection is built on assumptions: cost, acquisition, conversion, retention, pricing.
If even one of them is unrealistic, your model becomes fiction.
Your job is to interrogate assumptions like an investor, not an optimist.
2. Understand the market, especially how fast customer preferences change.
Markets shift quietly before they shift loudly. Competitors evolve, customers become more sophisticated, value perceptions move.
If you don’t stay close to your customer, your product can become irrelevant without you noticing.
Proximity to customers isn’t optional. It’s oxygen.
3. Know exactly how you’re going to scale (before you need to scale).
Scaling breaks businesses.
Operational bottlenecks, supply issues, staffing, fulfilment, margins.
Growth exposes every weak point.
If you can’t answer:
“What breaks when we hit 10x our current size?”
…you’re not ready to scale.
4. Have a real investment strategy, not hope.
Most founders think funding will arrive when the moment is right.
It won’t.
You need a clear strategy:
→ Who you want at the table
→ When you plan to raise
→ What milestones justify it
→ What you’re willing to give up
Money is a tool but only if you plan for it early.
5. Stay focused. Ruthlessly focused.
The world will offer you a new “opportunity” every week.
Most of them are distractions wearing a clever disguise.
Your job as a founder is simple:
Protect the signal. Kill the noise.
Momentum dies when you split your attention.
These lessons cost me time, money, and a lot of stress.
You get them for free. So don’t waste the advantage.
Attention Is the New Currency and Infrastructure
You have to take attention into consideration. It has to be part of your business plan. Because business has changed.
Ten years ago, business strategy followed a predictable sequence:
A) Build a product.
B) Perfect the product.
C) Try to get people to pay attention.
Today, this framework is obsolete.
The most successful modern entrepreneurs; MrBeast, Jake Paul, Steven Bartlett, and dozens more have flipped the model entirely:
1) Build attention first.
2) Then convert it into anything you want.
A product, a brand, a movement, or an entire ecosystem.
Look at the pattern:
• MrBeast built one of the largest digital audiences in the world before launching Feastables, MrBeast Burger, Lunchly, and a growing suite of consumer brands. His companies didn’t succeed despite his audience. They succeeded because he had distribution before he had products.
• Jake Paul didn’t begin with boxing or betting or media.
He began with attention.
From that base, he built a combat sports company, a betting brand, and a venture ecosystem. All with distribution locked in on day one.
• Steven Bartlett didn’t start with Thirdweb or Flight Story.
He started with Diary of a CEO.
A credibility engine, a trust engine, a distribution engine.
Everything else was built on top.
This is the Creator CEO era.
In the old world, companies paid for attention.
In the new world, attention is the company.
That’s why Bartlett’s newest venture, valued at $425M, isn’t just another startup.
It’s a bet on the future:
→ a world where creators aren’t influencers; they’re infrastructure.
Over the next decade, some of the biggest companies won’t be born in boardrooms.
They’ll be born on podcasts, YouTube channels, TikTok feeds, and
newsletters just like this one.
If you understand how to turn trust into enterprise, you’ve already won half the game.
As always, for everyone that is new in this newsletter, you can get my FREE startup checklist in the link below.
