Instructing Aspiring Entrepreneurs on What NOT to Do, Through Personal Experience

June 18, 2024

18 3 minutes read

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Crash Course: A Founder’s Journey to Saving Your Startup and Sanity by Ricardo Jiménez

What’s It About?

An unsuccessful attempt at entrepreneurship opens the door for an aspiring CEO to view success through the eyes of failure.

The idea that one day you invent that one product, service or company that sends you soaring into entrepreneurial success is an enduring fantasy for many. It means bye-bye to that nightmare boss, unfulfilling job or hours chained to the corporate desk. Finally, you think, it’s time to take the reins of my financial and professional future.

For many, this is a dream that’s beyond deferred. It’s never even pursued. But for a select few, they make the leap. We’ve heard plenty of Cinderella stories of those whose professional bravery led to meteoric success. But what happens to the ones who fail?

Ricardo Jiménez has written that tale. And, it comes from acute personal experience. In his new book, Crash Course: A Founder’s Journey to Saving Your Startup and Sanity (Forefront Books), he provides a near play-by-play of what happens when you pour your spirit, your resources and your aspirations into a product that you fully believe will be successful, but, ultimately, fails.

“Just because you have the will and fortitude to keep trying doesn’t mean you will eventually succeed (or that you should even keep trying),” he writes. “I want to help people understand and grow from the value they can extract from not succeeding.”

From 2010 to 2016, along with a partner, then Austin-based Jiménez researched, hustled, connected and pitched investors, partners, sellers, distributors and customers on his dream of a line of plush toys, Plushkies, that he hoped would bring the children of the world together. The book is a relentless account of pointless meetings, outright theft, broken promises and failed collaborations that would demoralize the best of us.

Jiménez has not only created a quasi-“how-to” on what it actually takes to be an entrepreneur, but he also provides a deeper dive into the spiritual fortitude needed to continue on the entrepreneurial path.

“There are enough stories about entrepreneurs who lived their American dreams, but what about those of us who put ourselves on the line, worked endless hours, did everything we could to give our companies life, and still faltered and lost our money without every creating a truly profitable enterprise?”

Jiménez’s Plushkies — cuddly and cute stuffed toys shaped like nations — were, frankly, a rather unusual idea. However, he notes that early on the concept and product gained traction. Over the course of launching this international toy company, he attracted fans and supporters along the way, which made the ending all the more disheartening.

These days, Jiménez is a voice for a decidedly counter idea — failure can inform a different narrative of success. His book is not meant to dissuade the next entrepreneur, but rather provide a clear-eyed view of what this journey truly requires.

Arguably, he may have found a new vocation as a philosopher or professional guide. His advice is focused on the entrepreneurial journey, but his observations often transcend that narrow focus. For instance, he reminds readers to remember that they are bigger than the work they do or the businesses they launch.

Jiménez writes: “We need to work on what we love and want to see succeed, but not to the point that it makes us miserable. There is no obligation for an entrepreneur to have a successful startup. Ambition is fine, but not when it consumes you or when your employer overrides your well-being.”

Such perspective is as crucial for an entrepreneur as it is for a nine-to-fiver.