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[This talk contains mature language
Viewer discretion is advised]

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If we traveled back to the year 800 BC,

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in Greece, we would see
that merchants whose businesses failed

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were forced to sit in the marketplace
with a basket over their heads.

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In premodern Italy,

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failed business owners,
who had outstanding debts,

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were taken totally naked
to the public square

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where they had to bang their butts
against a special stone

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while a crowd jeered at them.

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In the 17th century in France,

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failed business owners
were taken to the center of the market,

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where the beginning of their bankruptcy
was publicly announced.

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And in order to avoid
immediate imprisonment,

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they had to wear a green bonnet

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so that everyone knew they were a failure.

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Of course, these are extreme examples.

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But it is important to remember

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that when we excessively
punish those who fail,

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we stifle innovation
and business creation,

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the engines of economic growth
in any country.

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Time has passed, and today we don't
publicly humiliate failed entrepreneurs.

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And they don't broadcast
their failures on social media.

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In fact, I think that all of us
can relate with the pain of failure.

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But we don't share the details
of those experiences.

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And I totally get it, my friends,
I have also been there.

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I had a business that failed

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and sharing that story
was incredibly hard.

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In fact, it required seven years,
a good dose of vulnerability

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and the company of my friends.

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This is my failure story.

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When I was in college, studying business,
I met a group of indigenous women.

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They lived in a poor rural community
in the state of Puebla, in central Mexico.

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They made beautiful handmade products.

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And when I met them and I saw their work,

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I decided I wanted to help.

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With some friends,
I cofounded a social enterprise

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with the mission to help the women
create an income stream

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and improve their quality of life.

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We did everything by the book,

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as we had learned in business school.

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We got investors,

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we spent a lot of time building
the business and training the women.

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But soon we realized we were novices.

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The handmade products were not selling,

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and the financial plan we had made
was totally unrealistic.

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In fact, we worked
for years without a salary,

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hoping that a miracle would happen,

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that magically a great buyer would arrive

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and she would make
the business profitable.

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But that miracle never happened.

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In the end, we had to close the business,

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and that broke my heart.

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I started everything
to create a positive impact

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on the life of the artisans.

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And I felt that I have done the opposite.

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I felt so guilty

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that I decided to hide this failure

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from my conversations
and my resume for years.

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I didn't know other failed entrepreneurs,

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and I thought I was
the only loser in the world.

NOTE Paragraph

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One night, seven years later,
I was out with some friends

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and we were talking
about the life of the entrepreneur.

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And of course,
the issue of failure came out.

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I decided to confess to my friends
the story of my failed business.

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And they shared similar stories.

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In that moment, a thought
became really clear in my mind:

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all of my friends were failures.

NOTE Paragraph

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(Laughter)

NOTE Paragraph

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Being more serious, that night I realized

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that A: I wasn't
the only loser in the world,

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and B: we all have hidden failures.

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Please tell me if that is not true.

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That night was like an exorcism for me.

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I realized that sharing your failures
makes you stronger, not weaker.

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And being open to my vulnerability

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helped me connect with others
in a deeper and more meaningful way

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and embrace life lessons
I wouldn't have learned previously.

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As a consequence of this experience

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of sharing stories
of businesses that didn't work,

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we decided to create a platform of events

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to help others
share their failure stories.

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And we called it Fuckup Nights.

NOTE Paragraph

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Years later, we also created
a research center

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devoted to the story of failure

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and its implications
on business, people and society

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and as we love cool names,
we called it the Failure Institute.

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It has been surprising to see

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that when an entrepreneur
stands on a stage

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and shares a story of failure,

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she can actually enjoy that experience.

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It doesn't have to be a moment
of shame and embarrassment,

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as it used to be in the past.

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It is an opportunity
to share lessons learned

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and build empathy.

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We have also discovered

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that when the members of a team
share their failures, magic happens.

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Bonds grow stronger
and collaboration becomes easier.

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Through our events and research projects,

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we have found some interesting facts.

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For instance, that men and women
react in a different way

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after the failure of a business.

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The most common reaction among men

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is to start a new business
within one year of failure,

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but in a different sector,

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while women decide to look for a job

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and postpone the creation
of a new business.

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Our hypothesis is that this happens

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because women tend to suffer more
from the impostor syndrome.

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We feel that we need something else
to be a good entrepreneur.

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But I have seen that in many, many cases
women have everything that's needed.

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We just need to take the step.

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And in the case of men,

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it is more common to see that they feel
they have enough knowledge

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and just need to put it in practice
in another place with better luck.

NOTE Paragraph

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Another interesting finding has been

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that there are regional differences
on how entrepreneurs cope with failure.

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For instance, the most common reaction

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after the failure of a business
in the American continent

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is to go back to school.

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While in Europe, the most common reaction
is to look for a therapist.

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(Laughter)

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We're not sure which is a better reaction
after the failure of a business,

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but this is something
we will study in the future.

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Another interesting finding has been

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the profound impact that public policy
has on failed entrepreneurs.

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For instance, in my country, in Mexico,

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the regulatory environment is so hard,

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that closing a business can take you
a lot of time and a lot of money.

NOTE Paragraph

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Let's begin with the money.

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In the best possible scenario,

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meaning you don't have
problems with partners,

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providers, clients, employees,

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in the best possible scenario,

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officially closing a business
will cost you 2,000 dollars.

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Which is a lot of money in Mexico.

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Someone who earns the minimum wage

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would have to work for 15 months
to save this amount.

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Now, let's talk about the time.

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As you may know,
in most of the developing world,

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the average life expectancy
of a business is two years.

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In Mexico, the process of officially
closing a business takes two years.

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What happens when the average
life expectancy of a business

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is so similar to the time it will take you
to close it if it doesn't work?

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Of course, this discourages
business creation

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and promotes informal economy.

NOTE Paragraph

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In fact, econometric research has proved

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that if the process of declaring
bankruptcy takes less time and less money,

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more new firms will enter the market.

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For this reason, in 2017,

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we proposed a series
of public policy recommendations

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for the procedure of officially
closing businesses in Mexico.

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For a whole year,

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we worked with entrepreneurs
from all over the country

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and with Congress.

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And the good news is that we managed
to help change the law.

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Yay!

NOTE Paragraph

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(Applause)

NOTE Paragraph

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The idea is that when
the new regulation comes into force,

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entrepreneurs will be able to close
their businesses in an online procedure

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that is faster and inexpensive.

NOTE Paragraph

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(Sighs)

NOTE Paragraph

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On the night we invented Fuckup Nights,

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we never imagined that the movement
would grow this big.

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We are in 80 countries now.

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In that moment, our only intention

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was to put the topic
of failure on the table.

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To help our friends see that failure
is something we must talk about.

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It is not a cause of humiliation,
as it used to be in the past,

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or a cause of celebration,
as some people say.

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In fact, I want to confess something.

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Every time I listen
to Silicon Valley types or students

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bragging about failing fast and often
like it's no big deal, I cringe.

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Because I think that there is a dark side
on the mantra "fail fast."

NOTE Paragraph

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Of course, failing fast
is a great way to accelerate learning

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and avoid wasting time.

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But I fear that when
we present rapid failure

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to entrepreneurs
as their one and only option,

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we might be promoting laziness.

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We might be promoting
that entrepreneurs give up too easily.

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I also fear that the culture
of rapid failure

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could be minimizing
the devastating consequences

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of the failure of a business.

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For instance, when
my social enterprise died,

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the worst part was that I had to go back
to the indigenous community

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and tell the women
that the business had failed

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and it was my fault.

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For some people this could be seen
like a great learning opportunity for me,

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but the truth is that
the closure of this business

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represented much more than that.

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It meant that the women
would stop receiving an income

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that they really needed.

NOTE Paragraph

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For this reason,
I want to propose something.

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I want to propose
that just as we put aside the idea

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of publicly humiliating
failed entrepreneurs,

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we must put aside the idea
that failing fast is always the best.

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And I want to propose a new mantra:

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fail mindfully.

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We must remember that businesses
are made of people,

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businesses are not entities
that appear and disappear

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magically without consequences.

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When a firm dies,
some people will lose their jobs.

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And others will lose their money.

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And in the case
of social and green enterprises,

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the death of this business
can have a negative impact

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on the ecosystems or communities
they were trying to serve.

NOTE Paragraph

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But what does it mean to fail mindfully?

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It means being aware of the impact,
of the consequences

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of the failure of that business.

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Being aware of the lessons learned.

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And being aware of the responsibility

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to share those learnings with the world.

NOTE Paragraph

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Thank you.

NOTE Paragraph

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(Applause)