So what is a culture of failure?
Imagine running a business in India. If you fail, you seem to face pressure from all of society: parents criticize, relatives mock, neighbors distrust, and friends distance themselves. Occasionally you overhear people talking about you, but nothing good: “Why did that guy go into business only to still be drifting around now?” or “See, I told him to be content with his lot, but he wouldn't listen. Now he'll have to put up with it.” You feel you alone are fighting the whole world. Starting a business already required overcoming much criticism; when you fail, the criticism and rejection are many times greater.
You click your tongue and wonder: Could I be wrong? Could pursuing a dream be Not Right?
Perhaps you have been wrong in some places and foolish at times, because no one is perfect. But facing so much meaningless pressure seems to drain you, exhaust you, dissolve your energy, and gradually wear away your will…
In the United States, failure is seen as normal, and there are many books with themes such as “Dare to Fail in Order to Succeed.” Edison failed thousands of times while inventing the electric light bulb. He did not call them failures; he called them “10,000 steps toward success.” Thomas Watson, founder of IBM, once said, “If you want to succeed, double your rate of failure.”
Unlike in India, failure does not seem to be shunned. Americans know how to celebrate and encourage failure so well that they have turned it into 1 whole culture—the Culture of Failure.
This very culture created the electric light bulb, cars, airplanes, spacecraft, television, the internet, phones, Microsoft, Apple, Intel, IBM, Coca Cola, Pepsi, Starbucks, McDonald’s, Facebook… And the greatest creation of a culture of failure is an ecosystem that will keep creating other great inventions and businesses that help change this world. I mean truly change it, not merely people sitting in university lecture halls saying, “I will be a second Bill Gates, build a business that defeats Microsoft, and change the world.” That must be a complete startup ecosystem.
In Vietnam, I find characteristics similar to India's. We do not yet have a Culture of Failure. That is why, in the current business and social environment, it will be difficult for us to produce great companies, great CEOs and world-changing inventions.
Culture of failure -> Entrepreneurial spirit -> Entrepreneurial ecosystem
Entrepreneurship has been discussed a great deal recently. In the past, Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew appeared on television to call on the entire country to develop entrepreneurship together. But Singapore failed in this campaign because, like India, Singaporeans at that time had not truly developed a Culture of Failure.
Before promoting Entrepreneurship, before discussing distant, macro-level ideas such as a Startup Ecosystem, we need a Culture of Failure.
If entrepreneurship is merely a trend, without building companies of real value, bringing genuine benefits to customers, and creating truly positive social impact; if a single failure brings discouragement; if society does not encourage those who fail, then the flame ignited around so-called Entrepreneurial Spirit will quickly die out. That is not true Entrepreneurial Spirit.
Without true Entrepreneurial Spirit, nobody would persist through repeated attempts to build a sustainably successful business, nor be dedicated enough to support startups. There would be no entrepreneurs, mentors or experts willing to help and share because they have a common Entrepreneurial Spirit and appreciate that spirit in young entrepreneurs… Without all this, there would be no Startup Ecosystem. Grand projects such as “Silicon Valley in Vietnam” would be mere talk. We need to get to the essence, address root causes and use appropriate methods.
Now, or never?
A Culture of Failure is the foundation for successfully building an Entrepreneurial Spirit and Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Vietnam.
