Learning from failures‪.‬ Kunwar Shivam Srivastav

It has been almost one year since I last recorded an episode. I have been busy with grad school at NYU. I want to do this more frequently, but I think I have to learn more things before I can articulate my thoughts. 

Anyway, last night I wrote a poem and then recorded it this morning. I like it because it has been quite a long time since I wrote something. So, I wanted to share it here.


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Aapka pehla sawal khud se kya hona chahiye jab aap apni company ki shuruat karte hain?
Learning from failures meri kahani hai, meri galtiyon ki aur maine jo bhi seekha hai inse. Hi, mera naam Kunwar hai. Ye podcast mere  asaphalta ka philosophical arguments nahi hai, na hi tark hai. Ye podcast firse, shuru se entrepreneurship seekhne ka hai. 
Aasha karta hun ki ye aapke aur mere kaam aaegi!
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This episode is nothing more than an outlet for me to tell you about things happening in my life. A little digression from the norm, if you will.  Allow that, will you?



Visit the podcast homepage: Learning From Failures: https://lfwithkunwar.com 



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The whole idea of the podcast centres around learning from past, mistakes or failures and so how well can I recall things correctly, how well can I tune into my belief system and recognise the faults in it. It revolves around me trying to find the meaning of everything.

And could it be that the whole premise of the show is infected with hindsight bias? Could it be that because I am documenting this, I am not tuning in to the real problems and mistakes but rather I am selecting things that I think would make an okayish podcast and while doing so, I am documenting my bias as well, maybe, stronger than before when I was not recording a podcast.

Could it be that I don’t learn from my failures and make the same mistakes?



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We are prone to biases and even though we have come up with great tools for decision making such as probability theory, statistics, optimisation techniques, logic, and yet since it is computationally expensive, we cannot use it for quick decision making. Then we rely on hunches and instincts. And thus, we introduce bias to the equation. In retrospect, bias is a way for us to quickly make a decision about something. It doesn’t have to be right or wrong.

For some among us, decision making is something that we either will do or have done,  we are more prone to biases than someone who is not that position. As a business owner, it is part of our daily life and so more room for biases to influence our lives and work.



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Validated Learning was coined by a genius entrepreneur, Eric Ries. The definition that Eric gives is somewhat like “validated learning, is the unit of progress in a lean startup”.  

A lean startup, if you don’t know, advocates that entrepreneurs should develop products that users want and that the market will exist as soon as the product is released. The difference between a lean startup and a traditional business is that a traditional business would wait for the product development to be completed and then look for customers. Another major difference is that a lean startup is experimental in its philosophy.

Okay, coming back to validated learning. Validated learning is how we measure our progress. How do we know how much have we learned from our experiences?

These days I say that I have learned a lot from my failed ventures. These days I say a lot that I am learning from failures. But how much of that is true?



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