The Entrepreneur Forum | Financial Freedom | Starting a Business | Motivation | Money | Success

Welcome to the only entrepreneur forum dedicated to building life-changing wealth.

Build a Fastlane business. Earn real financial freedom. Join free.

Join over 80,000 entrepreneurs who have rejected the paradigm of mediocrity and said "NO!" to underpaid jobs, ascetic frugality, and suffocating savings rituals— learn how to build a Fastlane business that pays both freedom and lifestyle affluence.

Free registration at the forum removes this block.

The Fail Thread

AllenCrawley

Legendary Contributor
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
420%
Oct 13, 2011
4,112
17,270
52
Scottsdale, AZ

ljean

Silver Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
169%
Jan 22, 2017
506
857
USA
Several years ago I put together a very small foreign currency trading fund that was modeled against a huge FX hedge fund that had around $15B in assets and had been in business for 30 years. The first year the markets performed well and we made a bunch of money. The second year the markets were terrible and we lost 2x what was made the first year. The losses were far beyond what was to be expected due to central bank intervention in the currency markets during and after the financial crisis and historically low interest rates that just kept going down. There was no end in sight and I had to pull the plug to stop the bleeding. It cost me about $100,000 personally, excluding the hundreds of hours used to develop the strategies and costs to get the fund registered, raise money, etc. A year or so later the $15B 30 year old fund I replicated went bankrupt due to client redemptions from poor performance.

I learned the reason every trading system, mutual fund, hedge fund, PPM, etc displays the warning "PAST PERFORMANCE IS NOT INDICATIVE OF FUTURE RESULTS". Luck plays a much larger role in success/failure than people generally give credit to.
 

Joe Cassandra

Gold Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
509%
Jul 25, 2013
398
2,024
36
Woodstock, GA
--> Grew up afraid to sell anything to anyone. For a fundraising event one year, some ding-a-ling thought "vidalia onions" were the best thing to sell to raise money. I sold 2 bags without talking/pitching a soul. Parents? nope...I mowed the lawn for 3 weeks to pay for those onions. FAILED DUE TO FEAR.

--> Never tried enough at sports in high school. I was a decent baseball player (batted 3rd) but was far too lazy to work out, etc. Who knows if I would have tens of thousands of student loans if I actually focused on it (and not my ex-gf at the time). FAILED DUE TO LAZINESS.

--> Played music in a band. Traveled all around the southeast. One summer, I had $0, so I crashed in my girlfriend's dormroom (now wife) in what she describes as the "worst summer of her life." I was only making some $50/month playing. So, I applied at a BiLo grocery store, McDonalds, and Wal-Mart. Never got called back from any of them. Followed up with Wal-Mart, they said "no thanks." FAILED DUE TO LACK OF HUSTLE.

--> Grew up wanting to be an accountant my whole life. Really. In 6th grade, Ms. Pember asked everyone what they wanted to be and I said "accountant." Kids laughed. After graduating college...I realized my mistake the very first day I sat down in my secluded cubicle. FAILED DUE TO FEAR OF FAILURE

--> Started a blog, and wrote on it for 2 years. I remember I made $1 from an affiliate sale. i texted my wife from said-secluded-cubicle that it was the "first of many." Never made another $1 from that site. FAILED DUE TO BEING AFRAID TO SELL SOMETHING.

--> Started a podcast with a work colleague. We discovered our mutual love for podcasts over coffee. We had a show per week and actually got great feedback on it. Then, 7 months in, my cohost decided to start a podcasting conference with 3 other dudes. For some reason, he didn't ask me to join, and I've never had the guts to ask him "why?" despite us still talking to this day. The conference actually finished today for 2017, funny enough (4th year in). FAILED DUE TO BELIEF IN "BUILD IT AND THEY WILL COME + GIVE YOU MONEY"

--> Worked on a belt where inside would be measurements for how large a waist you have. The belt didn't have holes but one of those you could stick the metal rod in anywhere. I thought this would be great for dieters who don't see the scale going down but will see their waist slim (and continue). Got prototypes from China. FAILED DUE TO DUMB IDEA.

--> Looked for a niche product to sell to businesses. I found these self-scrubbing whiteners selling in China. It was like a magic eraser for your teeth. The plan was to pitch them to dentists. I ordered a pack from China and was in negotiations for mass production. My wife and I tried the product and it was terrible. We held onto those effing samples until we finally threw them out last year when we moved. FAILED DUE TO CHASING FAST MONEY.

--> Began building a prototype for a guitar hanger. I hated having to punch holes in the wall to hang up my guitar. So, I tried studying magnets to see if there was a way to sticky magnets to the wall and have the guitar hanger, through force, hang there. Now, that I type this, it sounds impossible from a scientific standpoint. FAILED DUE TO DUMB IDEA.

--> Began building a prototype for a device that is attached in a car and sensors if a person/animal is left in the hot car. I actually have a failed progress thread on this forum about it (too lazy to find it. Click on my profile and go to 'threads started by'. I had a complete set of stuff to build. I had commitment from some dude on Quora to help (he flaked). I talked to a guy at Toyota and he said it's not worth the effort as it would probably get ripped off anyway. Dumped it. FAILED DUE TO LACK OF PERSEVERANCE.

--> Build mockups for a coupon app (again, failed progress thread here) that would text coupons to passerbyers as they came by your store (through bluetooth). Gave up this idea pretty quick as you might imagine. FAILED DUE TO LACK OF HUSTLE.

--> Began a community for couples that wanted to meet other couples (for friendship). My wife and I had moved to texas and had trouble meeting friends. We had started a meetup group, but saw less and less attendance to all our events. So, I started a "matchmaking" service. It got up to about 200 registered people. Was matching couples without any software, just randomly. Ultimately, one couple would just blow the other one off for every match I made. Folded it after about 8 months. FAILED DUE TO LACK OF PERSEVERANCE.

--> At my 9-5, I heard they were looking to build a new website (as theirs was from the 90's). I heard through the grapevine they were going to spend $10,000+ for a simple design. I knew a CPA firm could easily work on Wordpress. I spent a whole weekend getting a domain, buying a theme, building a website, adding some content. On Monday, I expect to get roses and a promotion. instead, the "marketing manager" (who was just a CFP wearing 2 hats) told me the firm could get in trouble with the SEC for stuff on the website (as I didn't put disclaimers on it). Then, the Managing Partner calls me while I'm driving home and says "Don't do anything like this again or we will have to let you go." Essentially, she went on to basically say "know your place." Never got to do any marketing in my 3 years there. FAILED DUE TO PICKING WRONG CAREER

--> As a full-time copywriter now, I was lackadaisical with my contracts...signing anything a prospect put in front of me. Well, one client I signed with, I worked 3 months on work for them. After 3 months they fired me as they didn't think the copy would "work." Quick note: I had negotiated a higher commission and much lower fee than the industry standard. I believed in the product that we could sell it. Well, they fired me so my commission would then be 0%. However, 4 months later, they release new copy with 60% of my stuff word-for-word, my exact outline, my headline, and another 20% are just derivatives of my sentences. I reach out to them and they say "well the contract says we own everything you write, so we can do what we want with it." Now, I add provisions. FAILED DUE TO LACK OF KNOWLEDGE.

**I bet I missed some...**

Building a new info product now (Progress Thread - Building a Second Income Before the Second Kid) ...I'm positive it could be a success...but that could also turn out to be a failure too.

I look back on my failures and see how important they were to get me to where I am now.
 

Jake

Platinum Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
148%
May 15, 2011
1,801
2,669
41
Bangkok
Pressure washing business - Fail

"Direct sales vacation something or another" - felt shitty and quit

Renting my condo to people on section 8..condo destructing failure right there.

Built a sweet real estate website from my room in Kabul - Got sent away from my comfy room and couldn't work on it any longer - Fail

Quit my job over it - Realized I was walking away from too much money - Stayed in Afghanistan (fail?)

Built an app - scored over 500,000 downloads on the free trial - Was extremely buggy on some devices so sales were low. Felt like a giant failure. Wrote a short book on this giant turd so others could avoid failure - sales were strong and I later sold the app for a decent chunk of cash. Lesson learned was failures can be turned around.

Created a gun display case where you could shatter the glass and access your firearm ( www.incaseofintruder.com ) got laughed at and I never got it off the ground.

Authored another book - sales were little to non-existent.

Had a digital product that affiliates sold for me. 2 pushed it hard and sales were fantastic...until they pulled their traffic. Ouch

Started a male fashion accessories business - spent months finding a good jeweler to make a custom clasp. During the prototyping process he had to move back to India when his mom got a brain tumor. I was back to square 1. Fed up and sold it for less than the cost of materials when someone offered.

There's probably more...as well as the hundreds of failures you experience weekly while growing a business.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.
Last edited:

jick5555

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
113%
Aug 20, 2017
23
26
23
South London
Almost 5,000 hours spent on one particular video game, thousands more since early childhood.

15 y/o works at intensive labour £50 p/h Saturday Job, 5 months later has £1,000 no bank account stacks up on a desk. Spends it all on food, cinema, £230 suit for Sixth Form.

Used to live in a world of: 'Finish Uni > Get a job > Climb corporate ladder > Save > Buy Property > Retire' without realising how dreadfully unsatisfying that life choice would be if I continued to follow.

Used to be confident 3-4 years ago lost it due to my addiction to Video Games.

Recently Dropped a 20kg (44lbs) on my foot, thus prohibiting my ability to run on a treadmill and lose the body fat percentage necessary to fulfil my goals.

Desperately wanted to be noticed. Had little money. Found an Instagram page that provided all kinds of illegal services and goods. I literally bought into the lies and paid £20 for a piece of clothing online, guess what? No reply for weeks, too ashamed to tell anyone - didn't even bother to report the page because of how foolish I had been.
 

samsig03

Bronze Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
157%
Jun 8, 2016
75
118
Houston, TX
Oh this should be fun:

2014: What:Tried to license a bathroom product to every Tom, Dick and Harry. Got a 3D printed prototype etc. NO INTEREST TIME: Spent 8 months. Cost: $1,700 Lesson Learned: Don't Put the Cart before the horse.

2015: What: Tried to license another bathroom product that I had yet to create. I customized it to a small cap company. Got in touch with the CEO and was off to the races if I could create the product. TIME: 4 months later and after several close but not viable products CEO lost interest. Cost: $500 and a lot of time. Lesson Learned: I made progress, but couldn't deliver. Manage expectations better.

2015: What: Drop Ship site with all organic and green products. 3 sales in 6 months Time: 6 months. Cost. $600 Lesson Learned: Drop shipping is not for me. I learned how to actually drive some traffic for the first real time.

2016: What: Tried blogging. TIME: 4 months Cost: $150 Lesson Learned: I HATE BLOGGING

2017: What: Website to rent Kayaks (Airbnb of kayaks). Had about 25 people sign up over 4 months, no sales. Pushed hard for 2 months to no avail Time: 6 months Cost: $565 Lesson Learned: The chicken and the egg concept.

2017: What: (CURRENTLY) Fitness product with a patent pending. That I created and made by hand. I made it out of necessity and have been using for 3 months. I have given a few out as gifts and people like them. Time: 4 months and going Cost: $130 so far Lesson Learned (Struggle) : gaining traction, just started to pre sale.
 
Last edited:

Mr.Brandtastic

Bronze Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
309%
Sep 27, 2017
128
395
Parents' House
Where to even begin on the fail. I guess at the beginning. Really I was looking for over 5 years for a way to make EASY MONEY online. I used to live and die by the sidewalk. I wanted it easy and would take it no other way.

2012 - Look at little ways to make money, survey sites, ptc sites, and other ventures - Mega fail, 95% are scams. Even when they are legitimate you make chump change.
2012- Make a failed Youtube channel - Low energy and effort
2012 - Make my first failed blog about economics - Low energy and effort
2013 - Put money into Forex. I can beat the odds, baby. - I did not in fact beat the odds, lost thousands
2013 - Try Forex two or three more times. - Fail two or three more times
2013-2015 - Try being a poker pro and gambling - People were way better than I imagined
2014 - Buy website on Flippa for $250 - Had no idea what I was doing, it failed.
2014 - Buy website on Flippa for about $300 - Failed again
2015 - Buy PTC website on Flippa for $500 - Failed almost instantly, I'm 99% sure they used fake bidding in order to try and entice me.
2015 - Try day trading and stock trading - Had no idea what I was doing, fail
2015 - Failed satire youtube channel - Just lost confidence and broke
2016 - Water fasting blog - Low energy and effort
2016-2017 - Sports betting - Good initial success, followed by almost relentless failure until I gave up.
2016 - IRL Poker playing at the casino - Didn't beat the odds, was way too impatient for this
2017 - Bought multiple cheap e-commerce websites ($200 for like 20 of them). - Still there but like empty husks, will stay there. They weren't good sites, I just wanted easy money.

Finally learned my lesson. If I don't fully devote myself to ONE venture and stay monogamous until it succeeds, I will never succeed.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.
Last edited:

Sheps

Bronze Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
174%
Oct 10, 2015
125
218
34
UK
I have failed at nothing, only discovered many, many things that did not work for me or I did'nt want to pursue. ;)

Edit: This was my 100th post. Cool!
 

LeoistheSun

Silver Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
152%
Oct 3, 2017
426
646
Honolulu
So much fail in this thread... good fail that is :)

I want to add my own:

- I could have invested $1000 in bitcoin when it was $1/each. I was currently mining it btw. Yeah, that never happened...
- Got fired from Dominoes pizza 2x. Don't ask how. I don't remember. I couldn't make a pizza dough worth shit they said. They have a right angle ruler and would measure the depth of the dough...
- Got $15k in debt from rebuilding and customizing a BMW motorcycle. I still think it was worth it... just not the debt. I can't even make the payments.
- I was friends with a Drug Dealer for a year smoking weed. I probably should have sold at this point.
- Didn't challenge me at all. Wanted to be a PUA for years... YEARS but was a pu$$y. Finally did it and conquered my fear. Just the time it spent though wishing... a mistake.
- Not following through with my Entrepreneurial passions when I was 13...
- Not standing up for myself when I was assaulted (just turn the other cheek they say)... Bullshit.
 

MJ DeMarco

I followed the science; all I found was money.
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
445%
Jul 23, 2007
38,079
169,496
Utah
Bump. 6 years of failures to catch up on!
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Trait

Bronze Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
286%
Jun 22, 2021
83
237
22
Bangladesh
YouTube - (15-16y/old, Year 2016) I made around 75 videos on various video games when back in grade 7. Three of them got pushed by the algorithm and got a total of 100k views. Funnily enough 2 of 3 videos that blew up were not gaming related lol. Quit due to study pressure.

After Reading The Millionaire Fastlane -

YouTube (Round 2) - (19y/old, Year 2020) Saw @Valier 's success on YouTube (one of his videos made me discover The Millionaire Fastlane ) and thought if I put in the same amount of effort on video editing I would be successful like him (hindsight - completely ignored Need). I spent 1.5 month on making a video only for it to get 800 views. I made 2 more and they barely hit hundred views. I quit.

Instagram - (19y/old, Year 2020) I tried to build a page informing how entrepreneurs made their fortunes. Quit after 3 posts. Again showing no awareness of Need. I quit.

By around this time I realized my previous ventures failed because they lacked Need from the market.

Game Development - (20y/old, Year 2021) Found a game that had flopped because of some issues it had. I played games almost all my life, I knew how to solve the issues the flopped game had. I started learning game development and making the game that would solve the problems of the flopped game. After 3 months of working day and night, I realized the game could not be made alone as it needed a small team to get made. I had no option but to quit due to having no money to hire employees.

And finally where I am now - developing a game solo for about a year. The market has expressed Need for it, and I am about 75% done.
 
Last edited:

Subsonic

How you do anything is how you do everything
FASTLANE INSIDER
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
279%
Aug 16, 2022
916
2,557
19
Germany
Starting a local service company purely to chase money while provide poor service at high prices and being a commodity.
 

Isaac Odongo

Gold Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
240%
Nov 7, 2022
747
1,794
Uganda
Went out there like a headless chicken chasing money in crypto currency. Thought I was an investor. Think I over understood Kiyosaki. Lost a few hundred dollars and time, and almost punctured my heart in the illusion I was day trading some shady crypto called BVTcoiss, or whatever the shit with inside knowledge (this is also Kiyosaki). That's when I realised I was capable of being a pig head.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

jsc

New Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
44%
Apr 27, 2023
9
4
Consulting agency, landing pages, real estate, random small business ideas -> failed

This is a great thread! I'd love to hear more, new failures from others over time and perhaps how they succeeded after x times too.
 

Post New Topic

Please SEARCH before posting.
Please select the BEST category.

Post new topic

Guest post submissions offered HERE.

Latest Posts

New Topics

Fastlane Insiders

View the forum AD FREE.
Private, unindexed content
Detailed process/execution threads
Ideas needing execution, more!

Join Fastlane Insiders.

Top