[mgkimsal]

I appreciate your kind words to the OP, but... is that really true?

"Whatever you learned during that time should be valuable assets/skills in many startups"

I can not imagine for one moment failing in a business, taking a job at a startup, and having the owner(s) or others say "well... you've tried this before and failed - what's your input on XYZ?" In fact, I essentially went through this years ago, and could not find anyone who ever put any stock or value in my failures.

In one particular case it was very maddening because I watched the owners make several of the same mistakes I'd made just 2 years earlier, which ended up in me folding my company. Less than a year after I joined, they laid off half the workforce, then folded later. Try as I might to help in some way (not to take over, but to keep my job!), my previous experience of failure was not a valuable asset to that company.

Maybe it was just all the situations I was in aren't "the norm", but I just don't see it actually happening.

[lostlogin]

It's not quite the same, but I encourage those around me to share their failures and screw ups. Particularly more junior staff. Often what they have done confuses senior staff and everyone can learn. A culture that encourages openness is particularly helpful when times are bad and things are heading south. Most aren't as open as me, and this isn't business failure (more like technical mistakes and poor decision making) but it seems relevant.