Why Failure Is a Good Kickstart to Success

There's no success without a few - and sometimes many - failures. A few local entrepreneurs tell us how they failed so bad, but it didn't stop them from pushing on

We've only heard the saying too often: "Failure is the stepping stone to success". But you don't know what it really means until you've failed, truly, madly, deeply. A bunch of successful entrepreneurs in the UAE are now banding together to show us exactly what failure looks like, because they all swam through the mud of defeat and debilitating situations - and still do - before they got to where they are today, running a successful brand, product, or service. At the newly launching FUN DXB - something like a TED talk event - these men and women will tell the tale of how they turned their failures into successes, and the long, arduous road it took.
But we're here only to talk about the sad part: their failures, and what it meant to them, shaped them and their businesses, and their outlook for the better (or worse). And what we can learn from their ups and downs as entrepreneurs. So while it's a given that lows - and some serious ones - are a part and parcel of running your own set-up and being your own boss, an integral part of the learning curve when you're trying to introduce your own baby business into the world, nothing still prepares you for the hard hits and the intense self-doubt and struggles it brings. So, from operational struggles to massive mistakes and just plain business failures, hear it from the horses' mouths.

NADA ZAGALLAI
WHO: CEO of Glambox, the hugely popular mail order beauty box service that lets subscribers order new beauty products and try out sample sizes, before deciding whether they want to buy the full-sized products. Gives women a private, personalised beauty experience at home, without having to make difficult in-store retail choices immediately.
MY BIG FAILURE: I was a media studies student, and my first job was in the UN. Then I became a fashion buyer, worked in non-profit, until I had my first big career mess up, which the last start up I was worked for. It was an online concept store based in Saudi Arabia, sadashop.com. An e-commerce platform to sell design-based products, the idea was a very 00s-inspired one: somewhere we could buy things from, and probably way ahead of its time, for late 2009-10. I honestly had no clue what I was doing, had zero financial management skills. The site's founders just called me out of nowhere and said we want you to do this, and I went with it, but I wasn't equipped to do it. The founders were also designers who liked the idea of the business more than having any actual experience at it.
I was learning as I went, in a market that's probably the most difficult one to set up any kind of business, forget an ecommerce start-up. Even today, ecommerce is a teeny, tiny market compared to bricks and mortar business, back then it was even smaller. Things started going wrong, we were just spending money. There was no business structure around it, and we were hanging by the bootstraps. There were small successes along the way: we got customers, sold products and gained some exposure, but eventually ran out of money. We needed investors, and we found them, but it wasn't the right offer, so we ended up shutting down the business, three years later in 2013.
LESSONS I LEARNED: Sadashop was my MBA, it shaped my experience in every possible way. Some people go to fancy schools, I spent someone else's money and learnt how to build a failing business at that! That's real, on-the-ground schooling. After that, at Glambox, I learnt what not to do.
When you're an entrepreneur, there's always that tiny shred of doubt - huge actually - and no matter how big you get, it still feels like it's happening to someone else. Even with Glambox, we've still got a long way to go.
ADVICE TO BUDDING ENTREPRENEURS: Identify your strengths and be very, very confrontational about your weaknesses, and learn to ask for help. I thought, as an entrepreneur, I was supposed to have it all figured out - be the CEO, CFO, CTO put together. But that's not what who I was at that point in time. Many entrepreneurs will just carry the whole mountain on their back and try to white knuckle through it all, but you're human and you will make mistakes. Also, believe in your coworkers or employees: it's hard to trust people with something they haven't done before, but if you can't share responsibility, you can't share your success with them.

DANIEL & CHRIS VAHANIAN
WHO: Brothers and founder-owners of Organic Press, the UAE's first raw, organic, cold press juice bar that specialises in raw juice blends, raw nut milks and juice cleanses. It goes without saying, the Vahanian brothers are a health conscious duo.
OUR EVERYDAY FAILURES: Our company and brand is still fairly new - we're just a year old - and has taken off quite well... exponentially well, we must say. We didn't even think it would be this popular. But we also do everything ourselves, from management and accounting to sup-ervising the production and kitchen. But, for us, from starting the company to establishing it, and trying to grow it further, every step was a failure. Everything from the brand logo creation and advertising and designing the website, to getting the word out and educating our customers on what the product is and why they should try it, every day was a struggle. Not quite in the sense of failure, but as a struggling learning process.
The key disappointments came when clients would just shut the door on us, and did not even want to know what we were promoting, or they'd say "oh you guys are a start-up, we don't deal with those". Big companies wouldn't give us the time of day. We're trying to establish a business, but companies and brands that have already reached that level just don't bother. These are only some of the obstacles we face on a daily basis.
People are not ready or familiar with our type of product at the moment. After 11 years of work experience in construction (for Daniel), dealing with suppliers, contractors, payments, we thought if we're starting up a business, we're going to make sure every part of it runs as smoothly as possible ­- but it doesn't work out that way at all. From licensing to registering a company, getting a shop, building it up, approvals, drawings. it's a nightmare and we thought we'd known it all after a decade of being employed.
OVERCOMING THE BAD DAYS: As brothers and as a team, we work really well, listening to each other's opinions and mess ups every night, and trying to overcome situations. There are days when we think, "Why are we even doing this?" We were actually having that moment about half an hour ago, before talking to you. There are days when you have huge success, great traction, the spotlight's on you and you feel on top of the world, and then there are days when you think "I don't see myself doing this for the rest of our lives!" And if your partner's feeling low, that pulls you down further. But it's also great to have each other.
ADVICE TO BUDDING ENTREPRENEURS: Every day is a new day, a new page. Just take it one day at a time. And never underestimate the power of social media: put yourself out there on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and everything else that suits your brand. Have the entrepreneurial spirit, want to be your own boss, and be willing to spend money. Don't take failure to heart, but as a stepping stone to success. Also, you and your employees will make mistakes, just swallow it and move on.

 OSAMA ROMOH
WHO: One of the UAE's leading digital and online pioneers - CEO and founder of Digital Labs training agency in digital marketing, former head of digital media at Dubizzle, and an all-rounder programmer, writer, designer, marketer, manager, leader and strategist in his field.
FAILING AFTER SUCCESS: I'm a self-taught digital marketer, and have worked at some of the best known portals and ecommerce platforms here, and then I quit to start my own business, Digital Labs, which I don't have now. That's my big failure, because in its one year of operations, it was a huge success.
So after four years at Dubizzle, I started Digital Labs, a training company, because I love education and teaching people. I worked out of cafes - choosing not to have an office -registered it with a freezone, planned a 7-weeks course in digital marketing, for Dh10,000 per student. I hired instructors, acquired  accreditations from an American institute, course material, booked a five-star venue, and got 20 students to register and pay for the course in 10 days. We organised the training at a great hotel, with good instructors, lunch buffet, coffee breaks and fancy stuff, because I wanted to be better than my competitors. We gave every student an iPad Mini, even. And the course could be paid for in five-month instalments, which no one offered at the time. My competitors were big corporates, who didn't have the flexibility to do the things I could do. I made a clear 50 per cent profit out of that training course. The course took place, the instructors delivered (thank God), and the students were extremely happy. The whole thing was a huge success. And I didn't do it again.
Like a lot of new entrepreneurs, I had a lot of dreams and I was a perfectionist, so since the training succeeded, I wanted to do something else! This was my first mistake. I changed the whole business from training to an advertising agency. For staff, I wouldn't hire juniors anymore, and hired the best in Media City. For the money, I picked an investor, and this was my second mistake. He gave me an office and funds, and the minute I entered that office is when I started failing. We got 12 clients, because our service was unique: we only worked with small start-ups - in most cases, they can't find an agency that will work with them because they are a start-up. But because my investor started interfering with the business, I reacted emotionally. I closed the business, and I felt it was all my mistake. I failed, and felt embarrassed to even talk to my ex-team. I was always telling them, do your own business, but now I had failed bigtime. Anyway, we went bankrupt, shut shop; I borrowed money, paid salaries, fired all my staff, including my brother, and even a guy who left his 13-year-old job at Emirates to join us, and has three children to take care of.
TRAINING IN MISTAKES: I wanted everything to be perfect, I was being too theoretical. Now I want to restart Digital Labs, and go back to the training business.
ADVICE TO BUDDING ENTREPRENEURS: People say if you have a good service or product, it will generate money. This is nonsense. You can't create the ideal product or service without money. Start something up because you love doing it, and can change people's lives through it. Having an investor is not
bad, but it can be for companies in their early stages. Pick someone with experience in your field, and not one who will interfere with your vision. You don't (always) have to rent an office. Being a start-up and being flexible can be a big advantage.

TAHIR SHAH
WHO: Founder of food truck and pop-up business dealing in Pakistani healthy fast casual food - mainly rotis (fire-baked flatbreads), chutneys and curries. Dubai's answer to the quick taco and burrito takeaway trend, Moti Roti offers quick, inexpensive and non-greasy subcontinental wraps.
FLATBREAD FLOPS: After working in a completely different industry, as an IT architect for Nokia for 12 years, and all the perks that came with it, something inside me was still not fulfilled. I wanted to do something of my own. I had the concept of Moti Roti in my mind, and then, when my company offered voluntary redundancy, I reached a crossroads and thought, this is the chance to start something new. I rejected job offers in Dubai and in the UK, and took the entrepreneurial plunge.
I really wanted to represent Pakistani food culture, and felt that Dubai needed very good fast casual food concepts, like Taqado. This was my driving force. But I never had the capital to open a restaurant, and it's very expensive to open a bricks and mortar set-up, so I started with pop-ups. The model is kinda working, but in the last three years, of the six pop-ups we opened, I've closed five! That's business for you.
For instance, when you say Pakistani food, people think 'oh I'll get the stomach bug'. We have to educate them saying these are handmade rotis, very light and not oily, curry-based stuff. It's very wholesome, has freerange chicken etc. It takes time for people to accept a new concept or trend in an industry like this, and I still face barriers. Every day is tough - from the outside, it looks to people like Moti Roti is a huge success, but some days, I can't get out of bed! It's really tough: there's salaries to pay, a new rule or legality that costs more money, and I can barely pay the rent. As your business grows, the costlier it gets. You start making money, and it just goes out again - it's just incredibly painful.
There was this time I had three pop-ups running and was doing deliveries every day. I had a problem getting visas to hire drivers. A freelance businessman approached me and said 'hey I have a licence and can get you five visas on it'. It's a long story. but I gave him Dh30,000 and never saw it again! I had two staff stuck in Kish, and couldn't get them here. One part-icular day was the biggest low point in the business: I went to the freezone to deal with a trade licence, which took hours, and then the car park had a fine if you overstayed an hour. I paid that and in my haste to drive away, whacked a high kerb which I didn't see, and got a punctured tyre. I fixed the spare tyre, but in two hours, that had a flat as well, and this is in the middle of June summer, with food deliveries in my car's boot. Besides all this, there's a hundred other little issues going on. And I just looked up at the sky, and went, "Is this all you've got?" I didn't get stressed, or have a breakdown. An entrepreneur's life are full of these crazy moments, and you learn to handle them.
ADVICE TO BUDDING ENTREPRENEURS: You've got to have that drive, and steely continence inside you, or you just cannot run your business. You need to be made of sterner stuff when the real world is battering you every day. It's easy to give up. Personality and that inner philosophy plays a big part.
Don't try to do everything yourself. We're not superheroes. And everything is really about people. People are the most important part of your business. Ask for support from friends and family, and appreciate your employees. 
marypaulose@khaleejtimes.com

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