In 2015, after another project died quietly in my drafts folder, I started a spreadsheet. One simple rule: every abandoned project, failed launch, or dead-end idea got logged. By 2023, I had 500 entries.
Most people would see this as a monument to failure. I see it as the most valuable dataset I own.
Because when you fail 500 times and document it, patterns emerge. And those patterns? They're worth more than any success story.
Why I Started Tracking Failure
The spreadsheet began out of frustration. I kept starting projects with enthusiasm, working on them for weeks or months, then watching them fizzle out. Sound familiar?
I wanted to understand why. Was I lazy? Unfocused? Just bad at business?
So I created columns: Project Name, Start Date, End Date, Hours Invested, Money Spent, Why It Failed, What I Learned. Simple, brutal honesty in Excel format.
"The goal wasn't to feel bad about failing. It was to fail better next time."
Eight years later, those 500 failures tell a story I never expected.
The Patterns That Emerged
After the first hundred failures, I started seeing trends:
Pattern 1: The Two-Week Cliff
237 projects died between days 10-20. That's nearly half. The initial excitement wore off, the real work began, and I bailed. Every. Single. Time.
Knowing this changed everything. Now when I hit day 14 and feel that familiar "this was a stupid idea" feeling, I recognize it as just a phase. I push through. Most of my successful projects now were almost abandoned at the two-week mark.
Pattern 2: The Complexity Trap
The more features I planned, the less likely the project succeeded. My spreadsheet showed that projects with 10+ initial features had a 0% success rate. Zero. Projects with 1-3 features? Some actually shipped.
Pattern 3: The Solo Spiral
Projects where I told nobody, worked in secret, and planned a "big reveal"? 89% failure rate. Projects where I shared progress publicly from day one? Still high failure, but at least some survived.
The Failed Projects That Weren't
Here's what really messed with my head: some "failures" led directly to successes.
- Failed podcast → Built an audience that followed me to my next project
- Failed SaaS tool → Learned skills I used in consulting
- Failed online course → Content became the foundation for a book
- Failed marketing agency → Network led to my best clients
The spreadsheet couldn't capture this. These weren't failures—they were research disguised as projects.
What Actually Matters (Hint: It's Not What You Think)
After analyzing 500 failures, here's what actually predicted success:
- Speed to first user - Projects that got something in front of a real person within 7 days had 5x better odds
- Boring markets - The less sexy the market, the better my success rate
- Revenue on day one - Even $1 in early revenue predicted success better than any other factor
- Constraint-driven - Projects started because of a specific limitation outperformed "sky's the limit" ideas
Notice what's not on this list? Passion. Planning. Perfect execution. All the things we're told matter most.
The Mental Shift That Changed Everything
Around failure #300, something shifted. I stopped seeing abandoned projects as failures. They became experiments.
Think about it: If a scientist runs 500 experiments and 490 don't work, they don't quit science. They've just discovered 490 ways that don't work. They're closer to finding what does.
My spreadsheet transformed from a failure log to an experiment database. Each entry taught me something about:
- What markets respond to
- How I actually work (versus how I think I work)
- Which problems are worth solving
- When to push through and when to pivot
The Unexpected Side Effects
Tracking failure had weird benefits I never anticipated:
1. I stopped fearing failure
When you've failed 500 times and life goes on, failure #501 doesn't seem so scary. It's just another data point.
2. I got faster at failing
Instead of dragging out doomed projects for months, I learned to recognize dead ends quickly. Fail fast became more than a slogan.
3. I stopped hiding struggles
When you have a spreadsheet documenting hundreds of failures, pretending everything's perfect seems pointless. This honesty, ironically, attracted more opportunities than any success story.
What I Do Differently Now
The spreadsheet is still going. But how I approach projects has completely changed:
- Start smaller than small - My first version is now embarrassingly basic
- Share immediately - No more building in secret
- Set failure criteria - I decide upfront what would make me abandon this
- Expect the dip - Days 10-20 will suck. That's normal, not a sign to quit
- Track everything - Data beats feelings every time
The Truth Nobody Wants to Hear
You're going to fail. A lot. Probably more than you think. The difference between people who eventually succeed and those who don't isn't talent or luck or connections.
It's whether you learn from the failures or just collect them.
My 500 failures taught me more than any course, mentor, or success could have. They showed me who I really am as an entrepreneur, not who I thought I was.
And that knowledge? That's what finally led to projects that worked.
Start Your Own Failure Log
You don't need 500 failures to start learning. You just need to start tracking. Create a simple spreadsheet with these columns:
- Project name
- Start date
- End date (or "ongoing")
- Why it ended
- What you learned
- What you'd do differently
Be honest. Be specific. Look for patterns.
Your failures are trying to teach you something. The question is: are you listening?
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I share insights like this regularly. No sales pitches, just real lessons from building businesses.