FILIPINO technopreneurs should regard failures as part of their journey on the road to success, a consultant of Smart Communications Inc. said.
“In the US, it is a badge of honor if you have failed, unlike in the Philippines where you are stigmatized,” according to Paul Pajo in a chance interview with the Businessmrror at the sidelines of the launch of the 11th edition of the Smart Wireless Engineering Education (Sweep) in Makati City.
Pajo, who carries the title “evangelist” for Smart, said that, in the Philippines, startups that failed are considered pariahs and thus looked down upon.
It is quite different in the US as unsuccessful people who built startups are hailed as gutsy and determined, he added.
Likewise, Pajo said failures in the US are regarded as reliable gurus in developing startups “because they can share their experiences to aspiring technopreneurs.”
He pointed to Cassandra Philips, who founded in 2011 Failcon—a one-day conference in San Francisco celebrating failure.
It was in response to huge exposure of successful startups in Silicon Valley, Pajo said. The conference was a success and had yearly conferences in the last four years, he added.
Hence, Pajo is encouraging Filipino technology entrepreneurs (technopreneurs) to learn to cope with failures “because failing is a part of entrepreneurship.”
“It is just continuing and pushing to achieve success.”
According to Shikhar Ghosh, senior lecturer of business administration at the Harvard Business School, failure is the norm, as 30 percent to 40 percent is the failure rate of startups.
The rate goes 70 percent to 80 percent, when failure is referred “to failing to see the projected return on investment. And, if failure is defined as declaring a projection and then falling short of meeting it, then the failure rate is a whopping 90 percent to 95 percent,” Ghosh said in a document.
Meanwhile, Smart announced it is accepting students from non-Sweep schools to participate via the open competition on mobile applications (apps) development and compete for the telecommunications firm’s Developer Network (DevNet) Innovation Award.
Under this new category, the telecommunications firm will grant special awards to teams or students from Sweep and non-Sweep schools, whose entries satisfy the criteria set by the Smart DevNet, the telco’s developer community program targeted at developers on desktop and mobile platforms.
Documents given by the company said a panel of judges would choose the top 5 entries with up to P250,000 in cash prizes to be given away. The winning mobile apps will also have a path to commercialization.
Although there is a high risk of failure in putting up technology startups, Pajo is encouraging students to take the risk “because it is the only way to develop your ideas and succeed.”
“I think the main challenge is that many parents discourage their children to put startups and become technopreneurs because they prefer their children to work in multinational corporations. But, gradually, Filipinos will appreciate the experience of being failures and appreciate more the essence of startups.”
Rizal Raoul Reyes
Image credits: Bloomberg