Masters in Business · Wednesday, September 23, 2026
Unlike in some European countries where failure can have long-lasting social and professional repercussions, in the U.S., it is often viewed as a learning experience and a step towards future success. Data shows that even failed business founders, on average, earn more than similar individuals who did not pursue entrepreneurship, with many becoming serial entrepreneurs.
“So absolutely. I mean, you know, anytime we talk about the top 1%, right, or the Forbes 400, we're looking at that same survivorship bias question, right? And so one thing we're able to do in our now like sort of the large scale admin data research is you can look at all new businesses formed since 2000. So that's like 10 million founding events.”
“Failure in Europe is a black market. It's something that sometimes takes generations to live down. Failure in the U.S. is like a checkbox. Okay, fail, try again. And his theory is the genius of American business and entrepreneurship is that failure is not a scarlet letter. It's part of the process.”
“Whereas here, it's like go out and do something is very much in the water.”