I've failed 4 businesses at 16...
How I learned more than most adults by messing up (a lot)
How can I stick to my long-term plan of staring a biz without screwing up at 16?
Why am I so confident about this journey?
This post explains it all. I’ve started 4 businesses overall in the past 1.5 years — and spoiler alert: I failed every single one. But each failure left me with real skills, real insight, and real clarity.
Here’s the first story.
My first “business“
Let’s start in January 2024.
Fiverr was the first spark. I was messing around with PowerPoint designs and thought:
Why not try to sell this? I have nothing to lose.
After a successful (but extremely awkward) pitch to my parents, I launched my gig as ImpressPPT. It lasted a week.
When impressions dropped, I bailed immediately. No passion, no resilience, no clue what I was doing. I was blind. I didn’t even know what I didn’t know.
First idea, first fail.
Ambition overload
Around March, I decided to build a full-on educational platform selling online courses (called Knowledge Academy) — without knowing how to film, edit, market, or launch.
The plan?
Create a high-quality course, build a complete website, and market the whole thing. In a few months. While in school.
Does it sound stupid? Of course. But at that time, I was serious about it.
I burned out before I even started.
I tried sprinting a marathon without learning to walk.
Second business, second fail.
The first structured approach
This felt more real: a web development agency called XPERTIFY. I planned and started the market research, branding, financials, even planned to check the legal stuff.
I had a cool Milanote board. I had a strategy.
Then came the shiny object syndromw.
I finally had a plan, but no patience.
Third idea, still nowhere near success.
The real deal
This was different.
I joined Iman Gadzhi’s Digital Launchpad, found a copywriting course by Luis Berger, and got truly obsessed. The Discord community gave me fuel — for the first time, I wasn’t alone.
I built Craft to Convert from scratch: branding, systems, outreach, content, all of it.
I finally launched in January 2025, after months of preparations and learning.
I spent over $100, which for me is a lot of money, I even bought a domain to be professional. Practiced copy every day. Created lead magnets. Ran A/B tests. Made content consistently. I even got a reply from a $1M+ entrepreneur, and gave him legit advice on his email marketing.
All of it was actually working.
Until it wasn’t.
When I finally checked the legal side… boom. Turns out you can’t start a business under 18 in my country. Not even with parental help.
I did everything right, except one single thing — and ruined it all.
So I had to shut it all down.
Fourth idea, best results, still failed.
The break and the rebuild
After this shattering failure, I stepped back.
I hit the gym harder then ever before. Worked on improving my productivity. Learned to talk to people and the camera (because apparently, as an introvert, you have to practice talking as well). I knew I couldn’t launch anything yet — but I could prepare for when the time comes.
Even if I can’t win wars right now, I can sharpen my sword.
The new era
Just a few months later, I realized something.
I didn’t have to wait for 18 to start becoming dangerous.
So I mapped out the next 2 years into 3 focused phases:
Learn & earn the knowledge I need to start
Build & launch the business right when I turn 18
Operate & scale the business to success
This isn’t just a 5th business idea anymore. This is a carefully made plan, backed by 1.5 years of experience and all the lessons I learned while failing 4 businesses.
The planning took only a few weeks and started taking action immediately. The vision is cleaner than ever. The ambitions are higher than they were with the Knowledge Academy, but finally… sustainable.
And the rest is history.
Since then, I’ve been documenting it all: one step, one mistake, one tiny win at a time.
Why this all matters
Most people see failed businesses as wasted time.
I see them as a 1.5-year head start.
I know outreach, branding, content, pricing, copywriting, strategy, and a bunch more. Not because I watched YouTube videos, but because I went through the process.
Four times.
I’ve failed enough now that I’m not afraid of failing again.
Which means eventually.. I’ll stop failing.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not sure I’ll succeed this time. I might fail for the 5th time.
But guess what?
If I fail again, I’ll just come back smarter, stronger, better.
I’m doomed to succeed.
See you next time
I hope you enjoyed this short story about my history with a bunch of failed ideas, and maybe it gave you some motivation, lessons to take with yourself, or just a good time reading about a teenager’s experiences.
Next time, I’ll bring a similar, but more successful story with lessons that are different, but just as valuable as these.