What would happen if a forum were created where everyone talked about their failures, shared them with the audience and they functioned as learning for other people? This idea was what inspired a group of friends to create Fuck Up Nightsevents that have precisely that purpose: remove the taboo of failure and use it as a lesson.
“At the beginning it was almost a utopia to use failure to encourage people, create community and change the general culture about the perception of success,” said Carlos Zimbrón, co-founder of Fuck Up Nights, in an interview for Entrepreneur.com.
Fuck Up Nights are free gatherings that take place monthly. The atmosphere is relaxed, “like among friends”, where attendees drink beer, talk and have fun. It’s like a kind of alcoholics anonymous meeting where the participant is a “recovered failure” who in 7 minutes tells how he failed, how he overcame it and what lessons he learned from the experience.
“We still see the approach to failure as a necessary step to success. It is not necessarily a bridge. It’s one of the mantras American startup culture feeds us. We don’t want to simply fail in order to achieve success”, said the interviewee.
Fuck Up Nights, the idea that arose drinking mezcal
Zimbrón says that this concept arose when he was meeting with a group of friends “drinking mezcales” and the discussion arose about why when someone talks about their individual projects they only talk about the positive and pleasant aspects of it, “but there are always mistakes and failures, that ultimately are the most valuable for an entrepreneur”, he affirms, “in fact, they are refreshing”. And they’d all had them: failed ideas, lousy partners, empty pockets, and other horror tales.
This is how, in September 2012, they launched their first call among family, friends and acquaintances to listen to three exponents from different fields who spoke about their failures. That was the first Fuck Up Night, with about 35 attendees. Currently, this 100% Mexican movement has a presence in 215 cities, 62 countries, stories in more than 26 languages, more than 15 thousand cases and more than a million attendees.
“One of the things we have learned in these 10 years is that failure is thought to be closely related to Latin American cultures, but it is not. It is something universal. Yes, there are specific concepts, but the phenomenon is global”, pointed out the co-founder of FuckUp Nights.
Turn 10 without fear of shitting
Among the speakers there have been all kinds of professions and stories, from businessmen and doctors, to magicians, sex shop owners, stylists, dancers and politicians. “They are successful people who have failed at some point,” adds Zimbrón.
Fuck Up Nights will celebrate their 10th. anniversary on December 1 and 2 with The FuckUp Summit, a festival of innovation with panels, failure stories and music that invites us to look at failure from the perspective of experts from different industries and different generations.
“The defeats may be different from what we saw 10 years ago due to the type of industries that exist today. However, the reasons for failure continue to be related to poor planning, a poor selection of partners, the management of expectations”, says Carlos Zimbrón. “Failure is going to happen and the way to handle it has to be different.”
Find more information here to attend The FuckUp Summit.
March Violante Martha Elena Violante (March Violante) is editor-in-chief and co-founder of Emprendedor.com and has a 10+ year career in digital journalism. She has interviewed figures such as Randi Zuckerberg, Daniele Lamarre, Zoe Saldana, among others. She has worked in media such as Entrepreneur in Spanish and English, Alto Nivel, Cine PREMIERE, México Desconocido, among others. “We are entrepreneur.com”