Why is it that most entrepreneurs must first fail?

Surprisingly, out of all the startup stories I’ve read, each and every one of them describes how the entrepreneur failed before succeeding.
Is this necessary, or am I overlooking something?

Why do most newborns who are just learning to walk fall?
Failure is just part of the learning process. When you give it some thought, have you ever mastered a difficult skill without making any mistakes along the way?
Would you be able to memorize the capitals of every state in the United States on your first attempt? Would you master diving on your first attempt if you were learning the sport? Would you be able to juggle flawlessly on your first attempt if you learnt the skill?
That’s just the nature of learning.
Go make more mistakes. It’s the surest path to achievement.

That’s true, but success isn’t guaranteed. It’s likely that you’ll make a number of mistakes before deciding on a compromise. For the majority of us, that appears to be a well-paying 9 to 5 job where we get to do what we love, have the freedom to disconnect after work, and ultimately have a lot more personal time!

While giving it your all doesn’t ensure success, giving up assures failure as well.

could it be Eddie Pinero?

I’m not on board. That’s one of those proverbs that sounds wise but is really meaningless (but it makes books sound good!). You’re doing something else if you’re not trying. That something else doesn’t have to be failure; it just might not be success. In certain situations, I would contend that there is a far greater likelihood that trying will result in failure.

What I’m getting at is a bit more focused than that.

If you’re not actively trying to do something, you could always do something else, and that might work out. But I’m referring to a specific scenario.

For example, if you’re not trying to pour a glass of milk, what are the odds you’ll randomly pour a glass of milk? None, it’s not going to happen. Or if you’re not trying to execute a reverse high dive, what are your chances of successfully doing one? Zero.

If you’re not putting in effort to build a successful business (and probably failing along the way), what are the chances you’ll wake up one day with a thriving business? Pretty much zero.
And that’s okay if you (not you specifically, just in general) don’t want to start a business that’s a different discussion entirely. But if you do want to start a business, or accomplish anything, and you’re not even trying, then there’s no way you’ll succeed.

None of them do. However, the chances of failing at everything are higher than those of succeeding in the beginning. It’s the drawback of being brand-new. We base our decisions on the information available to us at the moment, and occasionally we lack the expertise necessary to make the best choices.

gaining knowledge and experience To put it plainly, most people fail at beginning a business because it’s practically impossible to know what you need to know, and they apply what they learned to improve on their next attempt. Incubators such as Y Combinator are there to help high potential founders lower their chances of failure by teaching them the ins and outs of running a firm.

Paul Graham wrote a very insightful essay about it. I can’t find it right now, but he basically claims that every successful founder has an idea that he refers to as a “Artix” idea, or something similar, called after his unsuccessful first company idea. According to him, learning from your mistakes early on is practically a need if you want to succeed later on.