The freedom to fail

The first company I co-founded floundered miserably.

Not only I lost a business partner, I also lost a friend. I put up a brave face, and went on to create VeniVidiParis. It was 2019, then Covid came, we survived and are now thriving. What a great success story.

Not so fast.

I reflected a lot on my first foray in the world of entrepreneurship this past week, as I took on the role of moderator in a panel on talent management, during a conference that brought innovative start-ups together with enablers and established corporations,

It was a great opportunity, and a show of trust from both the organisers and the panelists I had convinced to come on board, talented HR professionals and consultants with proven track-records in this field. For me, it was a challenge, considering it's a topic I am not familiar with.

But new challenges arise everyday when you are an entrepreneur, right? True, but I know my company, the product we sell and our market inside out, so most of the time I feel like I am in control. That's handy, considering I'm a Type A personality: driven, competitive punctilious, neat. A true 'control freak'!

In my line of business, it is a pre-requisite, as clients entrust us to curate seamless itineraries for them, and that requires military-precision planning. In everyday life, that can be a problem. Rationally, I know I cannot control everything, but I will still try.

Last Thurdsday, while on stage, one of the panelists talked about the pitfalls of the 'hero culture' (a situation in which companies celebrate successes but shove mistakes and failures under the rug). It hit me like a brick, because I realised I had done exactly the same.

My first venture suffered from many ailments: an excessively 'optimistic' market research, a business plan too dependent on a just a few clients, two business partners complementary as to their skills but whose personalities could not have been more incompatible. Does this sound like "Mistakes not to make when launching a business 101"? It really was.

But when I launched VeniVidiParis, I played the 'hero'. Not immediately, because the aftermath of the company falling apart was hard on my self-confidence. But I believed in the project and I enjoyed the challenge, so I picked myself up. The new iteration was my own company, and I thought it would be much easier going solo than having to compose with the challenges posed by a partnership.

If you think I was headed straight for another wall, you are 100% right. Because I had not taken enough stock of the mistakes we had made, more eager to prove (mainly to myself) that I could make it.

As unbelievable as it may sound, Covid helped. It was a financial disaster, obviously, but it gave me a chance to stop and think harder than ever about strategy, marketing and sales. With potential customers isolating at home, they had enough time on their hands to pick up cold calls, calls they would have turned down under normal circumstances. And the more I talked to them, the more I fine-tuned our offer.

I did not have a team to challenge me, and help me through this process, but I had something else: seasoned travel professionals who knew what they needed from a company like VeniVidiParis, and were kind enough to share their advice with me, and then even kinder to give us a chance when travel resumed.

The company that emerged is very different from what I had planned on initially. While on stage, I realised that, just that morning, I had finally decided to let go of the last remaining vestige of my previous venture (an ill-conceived communication strategy), and I took it as a positive omen.

I wish I had known about the 'hero complex' before.That is why I am sharing this story today, hoping it can help someone in their careers or in starting a company.

Your path may not be linear (very few careers are, irrespective of what you read in resumés and interviews). Believe in your idea but not to the point of stubbornness. Accept the advice you are offered, because precious insights can come from unexpected places. But most of all, don't be afraid: there is freedom in failing, as daunting as that may seem, especially for 'control freaks'.