Gurney Preaches Creative Self-Destruction at the BIZ Luncheon

"In the context of the community we are in and the part of the country that we are in, failure is something that I would consider one of those unspoken words. It's one of those things that people have difficulty talking about, it is the same as if there were a death in the family," Christian Gurney, President and Co-Founder of Torsion Mobile, shared before those gathered for the May 2013 edition of the Business Innovation Zone luncheon. Scarcely a year out from his last BIZ presentation in which Gurney shared the insights gathered from a successful tech business launch, he returned to share insights gained from the failure of a business plan. 

The Importance of Failure in the Life of an Entrepreneur

The theme woven throughout his presentation and given an exclamation point when he shared the shape of the company's revenue curve post pivot, is that failing does not of necessity mean the end of the line, or the death of the dream. "Popular culture misunderstands what it means to be an entrepreneur, an adventurer, someone who runs a business. As my father told me, if you are not failing, it means you are not striving hard enough," Gurney said in one of several references to fatherly wisdom that has found personal resonance as Gurney's beard begins to gray and his 50^th birthday looms on the horizon. 

Square One DSM, an initiative of the Greater Des Moines Partnership, is formerly known as Business Innovation Zone (BIZ).