At a recent Office Hours event, I was asked a great question about what failures entrepreneurs should avoid. There are definitely some areas like building too much too soon, bypassing customer discovery and not solving a must-have problem, poorly managing cash, etc. However, a different way to answer the question we discussed was that many entrepreneurs fail because they are afraid to fail.

Run lots of experiments

Successful startups typically make multiple pivots from the original idea. You have to be comfortable running lots of experiments that help you decide whether to move forward, pause and adjust, or take a step back. Many of these experiments will fail and that is okay - the worst thing is to not even attempt them for fear of it not working.

Learn from why things don’t work out and iterate

From these experiments there are lots of learnings that allow you to pivot to the next iteration. True failure comes from not listening to the learnings and making the adjustments. Stubbornly doing the same thing over and over again (to prove you didn’t fail) is not the way to go.

Stay positive and keep pushing forward

Through all of these experiments and “failures” you need to stay positive. It is easy to get down on yourself or your business. The best entrepreneurs use these learnings and setbacks as fuel to push them forward. They remain optimistic that there is always another way or a new path forward.

The biggest failure as an entrepreneur is being too cautious to experiment and fail. Those experiments and learnings form the basis for how you iterate into a big idea solving a must-have problem.