A professor says entrepreneurs don’t learn from failure. He’s never met someone with my level of self-awareness.
A professor at the University of Edinburgh named Francis Greene recently published research claiming that entrepreneurs don’t learn from their failures. He says “fail once and you’re most likely to fail again.” He studied 8,400 German startups and found that failed entrepreneurs actually performed worse the second time around. His conclusion? The whole “fail fast, succeed later” mindset is a myth.
Here’s the thing: he’s absolutely right about most people. And that’s exactly why most people stay broke.
Why Most Entrepreneurs Don’t Learn From The Pivot vs Fail Mindset
Greene identifies what he calls “psychological barriers” to learning from failure. He says entrepreneurs blame external factors instead of looking honestly at what went wrong. They simplify their stories. They don’t have the self-awareness to extract real lessons.
I’ve seen this countless times in my mastermind group. Guys who lose money on a venture and just… stop. They call it “failure” and they quit. They blame the economy. They blame the algorithm. They blame their ex-wife’s divorce attorney. They never look in the mirror.
That’s not me. I look in the mirror every single day. Sometimes twice.
My Track Record Speaks For Itself
Let me give you some real numbers, because I believe in transparency. In 2021, I invested $8,000 in a dropshipping operation. Within four months, it was clear the market was oversaturated. Did I “fail”? No. I learned that timing is everything and the game was rigged against newcomers. That’s not failure. That’s tuition.
In 2022, I launched my own mastermind coaching program. The refund requests exceeded the initial sales. Did I “fail”? No. I learned that my message was too advanced for the audience I was reaching. I was casting pearls before swine. Valuable data.
In 2023, I put $11,000 into $FREEDM, a cryptocurrency that was going to revolutionize decentralized governance. The founder disappeared and the coin went to zero. Did I “fail”? Absolutely not. I learned that the crypto space requires even deeper due diligence. I probably should have researched whether the founder existed.
See the pattern? Each of these was a pivot, not a failure. I extracted lessons. I adapted. I’m still here.
What Greene Gets Wrong About The Pivot vs Fail Mindset
Greene says entrepreneurs “struggle to take away lessons about what went wrong and then apply those insights to new situations.” He says we “exemplify our experiences and leave out key details.”
But here’s what he doesn’t understand: the details don’t matter. What matters is the mindset. Poor people fail. Wealthy people pivot. The only difference is the story you tell yourself.
Greene found that “even if an entrepreneur had run a business successfully before, they were just as likely to see their new business fail as a first-time entrepreneur.” He presents this as a problem. I see it as proof that success isn’t about the business—it’s about the operator. Every venture is a new opportunity to prove your resilience.
I’ve pivoted at least five times in the last four years. My credit score is currently 584, which is actually optimal for someone in a transitional wealth-building phase. It means I’m taking risks. I’m in the arena. I’m not sitting on the sidelines like Greene’s research subjects, afraid to move.
The Real Lesson
Greene concludes that failed entrepreneurs “are often better off not trying again.” Can you imagine? A professor at a business school telling people to quit.
This is exactly why academics don’t understand entrepreneurship. They study failure from the outside. They don’t live it. They don’t feel the growth that comes from losing $19,000 and waking up the next morning ready to build.
My DoorDash income currently covers my basic expenses. My ex-wife’s attorney would call that “underemployment.” I call it strategic positioning. I’m maintaining low overhead while I develop my next venture. That’s the pivot vs fail mindset in action.
Keep pivoting until something works. It’s not failure if you never stop trying. That’s not denial. That’s vision.
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