Fantastic failures and where to find them: June edition

Success stories are great, but failure stories are even better.

Here’s our monthly round up of failure stories from around the web:

1. Former owner of Always Brewing Detroit on letting go of her business: Amanda Brewington shares an honest reflection on finally realizing her dream to open a community coffee shop, and then having to sell it 3 years later.
2. 8 times Amazon completely failed to hit the mark: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is far from shy when it comes to speaking about his own failures. “I’ve made billions of dollars of failures at Amazon.com. Literally billions. Companies that don’t embrace failure and continue to experiment eventually get in the desperate position where the only thing they can do is make a Hail Mary bet at the end of their corporate existence.” Patrick McCarthy takes us down memory lane, reviewing some of Amazon’s more publicly-known failures.
3. An entrepreneur’s failure equals a million dollar MBA: Dan Simons, co-owner of Founding Farmers restaurant speaks to The Next Web about his “million dollar graduate degree” and how he applied the lessons from his mistakes to his current venture.
4. On campus, failure is on the syllabus: “You are hereby authorized to screw up, bomb or fail at one or more relationships, hookups, friendships, texts, exams, extracurriculars or any other choices associated with college … and still be a totally worthy, utterly excellent human.” The New York Times explores colleges that are making deliberate efforts toward alleviating the pressure to be a perfect, high-achieving student.
5. 10 famous women on facing — and overcoming — failure: Though short, these stories are great reminders that even the people who seem like they have their shit together make mistakes, face rejection, and go through failure.
6. I burned my first startup to the ground. Here are some hard lessons learned: Omer Goldberg takes a deep dive into his first startup journey which was riddled with mistakes from the get go. Interestingly enough, even he admits that some of his failures and learnings are cliché. But, it’s easy to lose perspective — especially when you’re heavily invested in something. A must read for anyone looking to build their own business.
7. Why entrepreneurs should aim to fail: Kim Perell, CEO of Amobee, shares her philosophy on failure and how embracing experimentation — and the fear and rejection that may come with it — can inspire innovation.

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