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6 entrepreneurs who overcame failure

While it seems like every man and his wife is cashing in on a startup, this couldn’t be further from the truth. One in three of all startups fail within two years and half within five. However, for many famous entrepreneurs, failure wasn’t an option. We’ve compiled an inspiring list of entrepreneurs who looked failure dead in the eyes and said: “Not today.”

1. Vera Wang

As a child, Vera Wang had one dream - to become an Olympic figure skater. The designer, who is now internationally renowned for her extravagant wedding dresses, began skating at just eight years old. She competed in the 1968 US Figure Skating Championships and was featured in Sport Illustrated’s January 1968 issue. However, when she failed to make the Olympic team, she turned her attention to the fashion industry.

Moving swiftly up the ranks, it wasn’t long before Wang was appointed as senior fashion editor at Vogue. Wang faced adversity once again when she was turned down for the editor-in-chief position. In true Vera Wang perseverance, she moved to Ralph Lauren to take up the design director position.

Without these knockbacks, Wang would never have found herself as the most famous wedding dress designer in the world, having made dresses for the likes of Victoria Beckham, Jennifer Garner and Sharon Stone.

2. Christina Wallace

Harvard graduate Christina Wallace set up fashion startup Quincy Apparel with her friend and business partner Alex Nelson in Spring 2012. The startup was met with a media frenzy, appearing in NBC New York, New York Times, InStyle, People Magazine, Lucky, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire and many others.

After just ten months, the startup failed. Online customers were offered an 80% discount on remaining stock and the website eventually went offline. After the failure of Quincy, Wallace faced serious issues with her personal finances and almost gave up.

Instead of giving up, Wallace headed straight back out into the wide world and launched her branding and marketing startup Institute. Learning from her mistakes, Wallace then moved into the world of education and is now co-founding director of BridgeUp: STEM - a new educational initiative at the American Museum of Natural History.

3. Peter Thiel

Although his name might not ring a bell, his company certainly will. As co-founder of Paypal, you can’t help but be a bit jealous of his venture. Thiel had a keen eye for technology; as one of Facebook’s first ever investors, he seems like the perfect business man.

But Thiel wasn’t always so lucky; his hedge fund Clarium Capital made a serious loss - 90% of their $7 billion assets, in fact - losing out in investments on the stock market, currencies and oil prices.

4. Richard Branson

At university, Richard Branson launched a student magazine, getting more than he bargained for as he was arrested breaking laws on unsuitable content.

Not long after, Branson established Virgin Records, experiencing countless cash-flow problems throughout this period. In order to pay off an overdraft, Branson pretended to buy records for export to escape the excise tax on sales.

This wasn’t the last time Branson faced failure - Virgin Atlantic was founded in 1984, starting with just one jumbo jet for the first year. During the Government certification flight, birds flew into an uninsured engine, resulting in an explosion. Branson had to pull out cash from his overseas financial subsidiaries and reconstructed the company. After a court battle with British Airways, Branson found himself having the restructure the group and he was forced into selling Virgin Music in 1992.

5. Donald Trump

Bet you didn’t know that Donald Trump was once in $9 billion of debt? Neither did we. The mahogany entrepreneur turned reality tv star, Donald Trump established the Trump Organisation in 1980 to oversee his real estates.

However, in 1990, due to excessive leveraging and the recession, Trump found himself in a corporate debt of $9 billion. Trump was bailed out by not one, not two but 70 banks.

Not long after this debacle, Trump managed to gain a personal debt of $1 billion. Both times, Trump managed to prioritise and restructure, making it back to the top.

6. Morten Lund

Danish entrepreneur Morten Lund was one of the first to invest in Skype, which went onto sell to eBay for $2.5 billion. Just five years ago, Lund filed for bankruptcy with over $100 million of debt after making some unfortunate investment decisions.

In an interview with Mixergy, Lund said: “It’s not that it doesn’t feel bad. It’s the worst thing. You’re sure that everyone can see that you’re a failure.. It was really tough, but then again, that’s what I do and that’s what entrepreneurs do. You will sometimes fail.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ellen Forster .