Earlier this year I closed the books on my first entrepreneurial venture. Which is a nice way of saying I failed to reach a goal.

Now, it wasn’t really a ‘failure’ per se, as I didn’t lose money, but it also didn’t really go anywhere. In the end I feel all I lost was the time I spent.

However, I still came away with something valuable: the knowledge that I don’t want to be an entrepreneur.

Just like many people I got caught by the bug that I was going to become a tech startup bazzilionare and disrupt the world. But after almost three years working within a team that wasn’t achieving anything except having lots of meetings, I realized that that sort of business isn’t for me.

I realized that I much prefer real tangible businesses that sell products and services and make an impact on people in a clear way. The idea of building some esoteric technology with unlimited potential upside just doesn’t appeal to me anymore.

At least I know that now.

Here’s the thing: whenever you start something new you are taking a risk. Sometimes that risk pays off, and sometimes it doesn’t. Most times you don’t have a spectacular failure and even if you do, nobody really notices anyhow.

Even in failure, you still gain something. Even if it’s just the knowledge to do it differently next time.

At least you know what it feels like to try something.
At least you know what it is really like to push yourself to the limit in some way.
At least you know you didn’t sit on the sideline just talking about it.

At least you know.