I trademarked a philosophy about failure, then quit when it failed

01Lived

Years ago I became fascinated by failure. Not avoiding it, but what it actually does: how it teaches, redirects, and builds people in ways success never can. I was so convinced this deserved its own philosophy that I coined a word for it, Failosophy. I bought the domains. I trademarked it. I even built out the economic side and called it Failonomics. Then I made it real. I created The Failosophy Show, a podcast about the importance of failure. I recorded ten or twelve episodes with real guests: an Olympic skier, a former ambassador, a drinks industry pioneer, among others. The thinking was strong. The conversations happened. Then I hit the editing. Hours of audio per episode, excruciating to cut, and the part of the work I found no joy in at all. I published a handful of episodes, decided the conversations were going round in circles and that nobody was getting much out of them, and stopped. The trademark, the domains, and the recordings went in the drawer.