With two failed startups behind me, and a better one in progress, can I quote the sage words said to me by Ivan Sutherland, from a time that I was in the same pit: “The greatest thing in the American business system is the bankruptcy law. It allows unsuccessful companies to release their talent to go and seek new combinations of people and ideas that work”.

The mistakes you make are the foundation of the next job: you now know intuitively what are the dumb things one can do, and probably how to avoid them. That is gold. People who don’t look their mistakes in the eye repeat the stupidities.

The pain will pass, the experience and wisdom will remain. Sounds corny, but its true.