Failure is an enabler of success: one founder’s personal story

THE other day I woke up to two surprises. The first – magnitudes worse than the second – was Spotify’s selection to play DJ Khaled during my usual music-accompanied morning routine.

The second was his insistence that all he does is “win, win, win no matter what”. Surely not, I thought.

This made me think about the meaning of success and failure – is it about winning, or is it really about the embrace of failure?

In my own journey as a CEO, success was, in the earlier stages, admittedly defined more materially. But it has gradually evolved, to encompass a motivation for positive impact today.

In search of answers and to validate my own assumptions, I turned to my generation’s acknowledged source of all-encompassing insight: ChatGPT.

“Who is Luca Schnettler, and what can he do to maximise his chances of success and making a positive impact?” I asked.

In depressingly blunt honesty, the chatbot responded: “Luca Schnettler is not a widely known public figure and it is possible that he could be a lesser-known professional in a specific field.”

The answer to my second question was rather more elegant and profound. “Embrace and learn from failure.” Sage advice from the artificial intelligence, for sure.

Learning from failure

As a recent emigre from London – my adopted home and residence for seven years – to Singapore, I have sensed an aversion to failure even more pronounced than that in London or Frankfurt, where I was born.

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This is despite the two European cities not being quite the bastions of rapid economic and cultural growth we are currently seeing across parts of Asia, a region which never stops to amaze and fascinate me.

Festered through cultural norms and reinforced through educational systems, a fear of failure unnecessarily binds people to their current way of living, I’ve always felt. Traditional ways of thinking, including seeing failure as something to frown upon, have always kept innovation at bay and progress from advancing.

A fear of failure and not talking about it – if not outright celebrating it – sets both individuals and society back.

In an environment where individuals are not comfortable being upfront with their failures, there is little opportunity for future generations to dare to venture into the journey of entrepreneurship. Furthermore, it prohibits us from learning from our mistakes and growing – and if not for that, why go through the pain of failure?

All action is borne out of the courage to take the first step, and the virtue of courage is so often borrowed from those who have gone before us. Yet without honest and prejudice-free discussion of failure, we will neither be able to learn from our predecessors, nor can we be encouraged to take that so-crucial first step.

All success is born out of failure. To paint a picture of it being not so prevents us all from growing and our economies from flourishing.

Personally, failure is simply the other side of the coin, a part of – and an enabler of – every small success I have achieved thus far.

At 19, I failed to do well enough to enter the university I had dreamed of attending for years. The experience was painful. Seeing your peers embark on a path likely destined for success, when you were denied the same – it’s no fun.

My first thought? Simple. To hide what was so obviously a failure. It wouldn’t dawn on me until much later that the exact same failure opened the door to a life I couldn’t have imagined five years ago.

First, though, I had to recognise that failure for what it was. That process, admittedly, took time and required much courage.

After managing to get accepted to another, less prestigious, university, things were just not improving. Academia was frankly not my strong suit. Deep down I knew this, yet I was unwilling to accept the brutal reality of it.

The issue forced itself. My performance – and trust me I tried – never improved much above the average. Frustrated about my inability to compete with the top of my class, I decided to face my failure. I was no good academically. It was time to switch.

After some time contemplating and analysing my respective weaknesses and strengths, I decided my stronger traits were those more associated with entrepreneurship, management, and in general anything involving engagement with people to build creative solutions to unique problems.

At 19, I took the plunge and ventured down the rollercoaster of building a scalable tech business.

Five years on, my team now comprises close to 50 professionals across offices in Hong Kong, Singapore and London, and has raised close to US$30 million from the likes of Tencent and MMC Ventures. I am thankful to count many multinational insurers such as AIA, Allstate and Prudential as our clients.

Without finding the courage to face my own failure first, I would’ve been stuck in mediocrity, disappointment and, with hindsight, genuine failure. I took the opportunity of my failure to learn about my weaknesses, formulate a strategy to address them, and ultimately grow both personally and professionally.

It is worth noting that I am not alone. Everybody successful experiences failure. Churchill had the Dardanelles. Obama failed at his first congressional race. Lady Gaga was signed at 19 years of age, only to be dropped three months later. These are genuine success stories! That they had failed and yet still achieved is surely evidence that recognising – and learning from – failure is the process of finding wisdom.

Ignoring failure is short-termist and hard to respect. Putting blinkers on might barely help you avoid immediate pain, but will ultimately lead to longer-term suffering.

What will you choose – to face the pain or face the music?

The writer is founder and CEO of Qumata