Vinod Khosla: “Without being willing to fail you’re not going to succeed in a big way”

“To do something exceptional, you have to do something out of the ordinary. And that usually means risk. If you’re doing the ordinary, low-risk stuff, you’re doing what everybody else knows how to do and will do.”

Vinod continues:

“l’d rather have a high probability of failure and a large consequence of success than reduce risk to the point where my probability of success is high and consequences of success are inconsequential.”

Vinod argues that a lot of startups and VCs try to reduce risk too much, and in doing so, limit themselves to inconsequential outcomes.

“As much as you want to try and not fail, without being willing to fail you’re not going to succeed in a big way… My personal view is my willingness to fail is entirely responsible for my success.“

Luck is an important component too, Vinod admits. Some founders are really good but fail because of an unlucky break. To these founders, Vinod says, “you can try again.”

Full video: Startup Grind “Entrepreneurs, Don't Be Afraid to Fail | Vinod Khosla (Khosla Ventures)“ (Feb 2015)