My Failed Startup Story.

Summary

In this reflective video, Daniel Whitson shares his experience with a healthcare app startup that became one of his biggest failures. He discusses the initial excitement and eventual realization that his heart wasn't in the venture, leading to a loss of significant personal savings. Whitson emphasizes the importance of passion in any endeavor and the value of resilience, as he learned from his mistakes and reinvented himself, finding success in other areas such as YouTube and professional speaking.

Takeaways

• 🚀 The speaker shared a personal story about their biggest failure, which was joining a healthcare app startup.
• 💡 They were initially attracted by the innovative idea and the potential to become a tech startup billionaire.
• 💼 The speaker had a background in marketing and consulting, which they believed would be beneficial to the startup.
• 💸 They invested a significant amount of personal savings into the startup, totaling around $60,000 to $70,000 over two and a half years.
• 🤝 There were challenges within the team, including differing ideals and work ethics, which hindered the startup's progress.
• 🔄 The startup faced continuous re-planning and re-strategizing, which led to a lack of tangible progress.
• 😔 The speaker felt embarrassed about the failure and struggled with the decision to quit, taking about six months to accept the reality.
• 💡 A key lesson learned was the importance of aligning one's passion with their work, as the speaker realized they didn't truly care about the technology they were promoting.
• 🔄 The experience taught the speaker about resilience and the acceptance that not all ventures will succeed as planned.
• 🌟 Since the failure, the speaker has reinvented themselves, finding success and passion in other areas such as YouTube and professional speaking.
• 💪 The speaker encourages viewers to keep trying new things but also to recognize when it's time to move on to something more fulfilling.

Q & A

What was the main reason the speaker decided to join a healthcare app startup?

The speaker joined the healthcare app startup because they thought it was a good innovative idea and believed their experience in marketing and background in consulting and professional speaking could help grow the app.

What were the speaker's initial fantasies about being part of a tech startup?

The speaker initially fantasized about becoming a tech startup billionaire, driving fancy cars, flying first class around the world, and speaking on stages about creating innovative technology.

How did the speaker describe the team dynamics and work ethic within the startup?

The speaker described the team dynamics as having different ideals and work ethics, with many discussions, meetings, and re-planning, which led to things not getting off the ground.

What financial loss did the speaker experience during the startup venture?

The speaker lost around sixty to seventy thousand dollars of their personal savings trying to keep themselves afloat while working on the app.

How did the speaker feel about their failure in the startup?

The speaker felt embarrassed about failing at something they thought they should be good at and didn't know how to fix or solve the situation.

What was the speaker's realization about their skills and abilities after the startup failure?

The speaker realized that their skills and abilities were not in the tech startup world and that they had been misled by the seductive appeal of Silicon Valley.

Why did the speaker struggle with the decision to quit the startup?

The speaker struggled with quitting because they are a persistent person who keeps pushing, and it took them about six months to admit that the startup was not going to be successful.

What was the biggest lesson the speaker learned from the startup failure?

The biggest lesson the speaker learned was that they didn't truly love or have passion for the work they were doing in the startup, which they believe was a significant reason for its failure.

How has the speaker reinvented themselves after the startup failure?

After the failure, the speaker has reinvented themselves in business and found new passions such as YouTube and professional speaking, which have re-energized them and led to the success they were seeking.

What advice does the speaker have for those who might be experiencing a similar failure?

The speaker advises to keep going and trying new things, but also to realize when your heart isn't in it and it might be time to move on and find something that makes you shine.

Outlines

00:00

🚀 Startup Failure and Lessons Learned

The speaker shares a personal story about their involvement in a healthcare app startup that ultimately failed. They had high hopes of becoming a tech startup billionaire, investing both time and money into the venture. Despite their background in marketing and consulting, they found themselves out of their depth in the tech world. The startup faced challenges due to differing ideals and work ethics among team members, leading to constant re-planning without any tangible progress. Over two and a half years, the speaker estimates losing $60,000 to $70,000 of personal savings. They express embarrassment and a sense of failure, which led to a reassessment of their skills and abilities, realizing that the tech startup world was not their forte. The speaker also discusses the allure and potential pitfalls of the tech industry, including the prevalence of unfounded confidence and the rarity of true success stories. They conclude by acknowledging the importance of resilience and learning from failure, even if it means admitting that a venture is not going to succeed.

05:01

💡 The Importance of Passion in Entrepreneurship

In the second paragraph, the speaker delves deeper into the reasons behind the startup's failure, highlighting a lack of passion for the technology and industry as a critical factor. They clarify that their primary motivation was financial gain rather than a genuine interest in the product or the sector. The speaker observes a common trend in the tech industry where many are driven by the prospect of wealth rather than a desire to innovate or make a meaningful impact. They emphasize the importance of loving what you do as a key to success. The speaker has since moved on to find new passions and success in other areas, such as YouTube and professional speaking. They encourage viewers to persevere and explore new opportunities but also to recognize when it's time to abandon a venture that doesn't align with one's true interests. The speaker ends on a note of acceptance and contentment, suggesting that success can be found in various forms and that it's essential to find one's own path, regardless of societal expectations.

Keywords

💡Startup

A startup refers to a company in the initial phase of its operations, typically seeking to develop and scale a new product or service. In the video, the speaker shares their experience of joining a healthcare app startup, which was intended to be innovative. The startup's failure is a central theme, illustrating the challenges and risks associated with new ventures.

💡Failure

Failure, in the context of the video, refers to the inability to achieve a desired outcome or the unsuccessful attempt at launching a business. The speaker candidly discusses their startup failure, which resulted in financial loss and personal disappointment, but also led to valuable life lessons.

💡Innovation

Innovation is the process of introducing new ideas, devices, or methods. The speaker was initially attracted to the startup because of its innovative potential in the healthcare app space. However, the video highlights that innovation alone does not guarantee success.

💡Investment

An investment is the use of money to make a profit or achieve a financial goal. The speaker invested their personal savings into the startup, which ultimately did not yield the expected returns. This keyword is central to the financial aspect of the startup journey discussed in the video.

💡Passion

Passion is a strong and barely controllable emotion or feeling. The video emphasizes the importance of passion in one's work, as the speaker realized they lacked passion for the technology they were trying to promote, which contributed to the startup's failure.

💡Resilience

Resilience is the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties. The speaker talks about the resilience they developed as a result of their startup failure, which allowed them to bounce back and find success in other areas.

💡Fantasy

A fantasy is a concept or mental image that is not necessarily based in reality. The speaker mentions their fantasies of becoming a tech startup billionaire, which contrasts with the harsh reality of their startup's failure and serves as a cautionary tale about unrealistic expectations.

💡Work Ethic

A work ethic refers to a set of values or principles that guide a person's work behavior. The video discusses the challenges of aligning different work ethics within a team, which can hinder progress and contribute to a startup's failure.

💡Self-Actualization

Self-actualization is the realization or fulfillment of one's talents and potential. The speaker, an optimistic and forward-thinking individual, believes in self-actualization and personal growth, which are key themes in the video as they reflect on their startup journey and subsequent reinvention.

💡Reinvention

Reinvention is the process of making something new or different again. After the failure of the startup, the speaker had to reinvent themselves, which they discuss as a positive outcome that led to new passions and success in different areas.

💡Community

A community refers to a group of people sharing a common interest or goal. The speaker invites viewers to join their community, emphasizing the value of shared experiences and support, particularly for those who may be facing similar challenges with their startups.

Highlights

The speaker shares a personal story about a significant failure in their life.

They recount their involvement in a healthcare app startup, which they initially thought was a great idea.

The speaker had fantasies of becoming a tech startup billionaire and the lifestyle that came with it.

Despite a lack of experience, they invested money and quit their career to focus on the startup.

The speaker discusses the challenges of working with a team that had different ideals and work ethics.

They admit to wasting sixty to seventy thousand dollars of personal savings over two and a half years.

The speaker expresses embarrassment and a sense of failure for not being as successful as they had hoped.

A key lesson learned was the realization of their own skills and abilities, and where they were not suited.

The speaker reflects on the allure and potential pitfalls of the tech startup world.

They acknowledge the reality that most startups do not succeed, and they were part of that majority.

The speaker talks about the difficulty of admitting defeat and the decision to quit the startup.

They emphasize the importance of resilience and learning from failure.

The speaker shares the insight that they did not truly love the work they were doing, which contributed to the failure.

They advise that if one's heart is not in their work, it might be time to find something more fulfilling.

The speaker has since reinvented themselves and found success in other areas, such as YouTube and professional speaking.

The speaker concludes by encouraging viewers to keep trying new things but to also recognize when to move on.

Transcripts

so i thought i'd try something a little

bit different this week and that is to

tell you a bit of a story a story about

one of the biggest failures in my life

and some of the lessons that i learned

as a result of it i know some of you

have asked me to share a little bit more

about my personal life and what i do and

things like that and so hopefully this

is in the vibe of what you like but

today we're going to talk about my

startup failure story so several years

ago i decided to become a part of a

healthcare app

startup that was something that i

thought at the time was a really good

innovative idea i met someone who had

started building this technology and

with my experience in marketing and my

background in consulting and

professional speaking i thought i could

be a great partner someone who could

actually help to grow the app now in the

back of my mind i had all these

fantasies of becoming a tech startup

billionaire you know i was fantasizing

that i was going to drive all these

fancy cars i was going to fly first

class around the world i'd be talking on

stages about how i created this really

innovative technology and how is this

amazing in innovative founder all this

kind of crap the truth was that i didn't

know what the hell i was doing but i put

some money into the app i decided to

invest my time into it and i essentially

quit my other career to spend most of my

time working on trying to promote and

market and build interest in this new

technology now the problem is when

you're working on a team with other

people very often you have different

ideals and different work ethics and i'm

not saying anything specific to

criticize the people i worked with but

there was a lot of discussions and

meetings and re-planning and

re-strategizing and things never really

actually got off the ground and in fact

over two and a half years i think i

probably wasted maybe sixty to seventy

thousand dollars of my own personal

savings trying to keep myself afloat

while we were trying to launch this app

of course there was always the promise

that one day it was going to be worth a

lot of money and that we were going to

make a ton of money when we sold it or

that we got a proper investment or

whatever but it never came to fruition

and the thing was at the time i really

felt kind of embarrassed about the fact

that i was failing at something that i

thought i should be good at and i didn't

really know how to fix it i didn't know

how to solve it for myself but that was

an important lesson for me because there

are times in your life where you think

you're going to do something you're

going to be great at something maybe you

have a fantasy like i did thinking

you're going to excel in some certain

area of your life and you just don't and

that's just the way it is unfortunately

and i think for me in this time in my

life i had a real wake-up call about

what my skills and my abilities were as

a person and they certainly weren't in

the tech startup world you know the

world of technology and apps and you

know all that kind of stuff silicon

valley all that different stuff it's

very seductive and it's very appealing

and i'm not trying to criticize anyone

who has ambitions in that area to do

something for themselves but there is

also a lot of fakeness and a lot of

and a lot of people talking out

their asses when they don't really know

what they're talking about and they're

making things up as they go and

sometimes that does work there are

occasions we've seen companies you know

go from nothing to become unicorns and

their founders become billionaires as a

result of not knowing what they were

doing but making it work but the vast

majority don't succeed and i was one of

those cases as i said i initially

invested my own money my own savings

into

the startup and then i also probably

wasted another 50 to 60 000 of my own

money my own money that i'd saved i

wasted keeping myself afloat while our

app was supposed to be being built and

was supposed to grow and develop in the

marketplace which it never did now i'm

not trying to say that i'm not at fault

at all there are certainly things i

could have done better i could have had

better skills i could have had a better

reality check knowing that you know i

wasn't going to succeed as soon as i

thought i was we weren't going to make

the kind of money that we thought we

were but after that experience

especially towards the end when i

realized that this was going nowhere i

really struggled with giving up the

ghost with actually quitting on my dream

or my you know desire to be successful

in this area it took me probably six

months to finally admit to myself that

this is not going to be a success and

that was a really tough decision for me

because i'm the kind of person where i

will persist with something and i will

keep pushing myself and that's why i

wanted to share this today i know it's a

bit of a different video for me but i

wanted to share the reality that

sometimes things don't work out like you

think i am an optimistic positive

forward-thinking person i'm a person who

believes in self-actualization and

personal growth but there are times in

your life where you will make a decision

and it doesn't work out the way you want

to that's why i want to share this this

week is just a little bit of an insight

into something where i made a big

mistake in my life i certainly paid for

it financially and time wise and in

personal setbacks but it also taught me

resilience and it taught me that

sometimes even though something doesn't

work out it's still worth giving it a

shot and at least you know at the end of

the day probably though the biggest

lesson that i learned from my startup

failure was that i didn't like the work

even though i had all these dreams and

aspirations to be rich from this

technology that i invested in and that i

was putting my time and effort into

trying to promote the truth was i didn't

really care i wasn't passionate about

the industry i wasn't passionate about

the technology i just thought that it

was a good way to make money and you see

this a lot you know in the technology

world where everyone says they're going

to change the world through their app or

their software or whatever the truth is

a lot of people we're just out for the

money and we don't really have that love

and passion for it and that was probably

the biggest mistake i made i didn't love

what i was doing therefore i didn't put

everything into it and that's a big

reason why i believe it failed for me my

friends i wanted to share this this week

as a little bit of a different video

hopefully it gives you a bit more of an

insight into me and my you know past and

the things that i've experienced and i

think sometimes in your life you just

have to face the truth of a situation

you just have to realize things aren't

going to work out the way you hoped and

that you need to move forward you need

to find another way to succeed

fortunately since then that was several

years ago i've been able to reinvent

myself in business and i've also found

other passions such as youtube and also

professional speaking and different

things like that which have started to

re-invigorate me and make me feel much

more alive in my life and give me the

kind of success that i was seeking over

the long term i am not a tech startup

billionaire i probably never will be but

you know what that's okay not everyone

needs to be elon musk or mark zuckerberg

or steve jobs or whatever it's okay just

being who we are and making a difference

in our own way in our own business our

own industry or our own hobbies and

interests so my friends i hope this

video was useful for you maybe you're in

a similar situation maybe you had a

story where you started a business or

you were part of a startup that didn't

succeed i empathize with you i would say

to you keep going keep trying new things

but sometimes you got to realize that if

your heart's not in it maybe it's time

to pack it in and find something where

you really feel that it makes you shine

my name is daniel whitson short please

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you as part of our community thanks for

watching and as always thank you for

improving yourself ah i feel cleansed

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