Navigating Failure: How to Turn Setbacks into Success
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Chapter 1: The Initial Setback
What do you do when things don’t go as planned?
“I’ll swing by your office to pick up the check,” was the message I received from our sole sponsor. This meant we had to cancel the event, rendering four months of planning futile.
As the primary organizer of Singapore's inaugural iOS developer conference, I felt a deep sense of failure.
Having facilitated a monthly iOS meetup group for two years, which boasted over 1,000 members and attracted eighteen esteemed speakers eager to present at our 2013 event, I believed we had everything we needed. Yet, I couldn't shake the feeling that something crucial had been overlooked.
Photo by Adam Wilson on Unsplash
I thought to myself, “If I can’t pull this conference off in Singapore, what can I truly achieve in my life?”
Success leaves clues.
— by Tony Robbins
Determined to learn from this experience, I reached out to Winston Teo, the organizer of the Ruby developer conference in Singapore, which had attracted over 300 attendees in 2013. Having attended his events and built a rapport with him, I sought his guidance. He listened attentively and offered two key pieces of advice:
- Start small.
- Work backwards.
Together, we jotted down rough estimates for the total cost of organizing a one-day event. This became my roadmap for future success.
Identifying the Roadblocks
I needed to understand what went wrong in our previous attempt. Recognizing the reasons behind our failure was essential to prevent future issues. I meticulously combed through emails, notes from planning meetings, and tried to recall any forgotten details.
Initially, we had a sponsor lined up to be our platinum supporter, but they delayed their payment. Our organizing team consisted of six members, three of whom had conflicting opinions. One member even insisted on securing a $20K sponsorship before we could start selling tickets, a daunting task for a first-time event.
While I wasn't overly concerned about the sponsorship, I realized I needed a new team of equally passionate individuals to help cultivate our community.
In 2015, two years post-failure, I joined PayPal as a Senior iOS Developer. My director, manager, and colleagues rallied behind me to revive the conference. PayPal even became our first sponsor.
Months later, I attended Apple's World Wide Developer Conference in San Francisco, where I encountered thousands of international participants. During my visit, I casually approached the engineering manager at Yelp and said, “Please give me the name of your best iOS engineer; he will be speaking at our iOS conference in Singapore.”
This led me to discover two additional international speakers through a series of serendipitous connections.
Upon returning to Singapore, I attempted to revive the conference for a second time. This time, I secured two new sponsors, but I was still the only one on the organizing team. However, after announcing the event, five attendees from my meetups expressed their eagerness to help, forming the co-organizing team I needed.
On the day of the conference, Jurvis, our youngest volunteer, helped me transport twenty cartons of water to the event venue. A few days prior, I had arranged for the water to be delivered to my home, a rookie mistake on my part.
We arrived at the National University of Singapore around 6 A.M., where the van driver assisted us in unloading the boxes. Lacking a trolley, we improvised by using a wheeled student desk, making six trips to transport everything upstairs.
“Are you okay?” I asked Jurvis.
“I could use a new t-shirt,” he replied, and we both laughed, drenched in sweat.
The coffee vendor arrived by 7 A.M., and participants began to arrive around 8. By 9, the first talk commenced. In that moment, I realized I had successfully brought the event to life. There were countless individuals to thank.
It was then that I understood: “Anything is achievable if we have a true desire.”
From that day forward, failure no longer intimidated me.
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