It’s a known quantity in the world of startups that your failure is your credit. Please re-read the previous sentence. While failure in most walks of life hangs over those who failed sometimes in career-limiting ways, this isn’t true in startups.
Precisely because they’re pursuing what seems impossible, the entrepreneurs who create businesses eager to take us in an all new direction aren’t haunted by their past. Quite the opposite. If you have no stupendous blow-ups to point to, you’ve likely not been reaching very high.
All of this came to mind while reading Sophie Theen’s new book, The Soul of Startups: The Untold Stories of How Founders Affect Culture. Not a founder herself, Theen has many years of high-level HR experience inside startups. Which explains why the book intrigued me. I wanted to better understand the culture of startups through the eyes of someone who has long been the Chief People Officer (or name your title) at businesses that, in Theen’s words, are “born from an idea to solve something that isn’t working right now in our world.” Founders generally get to tell their stories, and great stories they frequently are. This time I wanted to learn more from someone who has worked for numerous founders, and who has helped staff their businesses. Theen delivers.
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