Our resident straight shooter, Dan Simons, was featured in a professional-turned-personal article recently, one in which focused on business acumen, the value of education, lessons learned – and the value of embracing failure.

Yup, we said it. And what is our founder doing talking to the press about failure? It’s all in an effort for transparency. In walking his talk, transparency is a must for Dan, and our team.

An honest, great read, Dan tells his story to The Next Web. An Entrepreneur’s Failure Equals a Million Dollar MBA speaks to hitting rock bottom and the all-important lesson of crawling out of that rubble, embracing failure – and yup, even earning his “million dollar graduate degree.”

Dan explains, “I’d always wanted to go to grad school. Instead, my partner Mike Vucurevich and I lost about a million dollars on our first restaurant, and it took almost 10 years to pay it all back to banks and our landlord. It was a crazy stressful time, and there are certainly parts I wish we could have avoided, but in the end, I’m not sure I’d change it even if I could. The lessons learned were priceless, so maybe the million bucks was somehow a bargain.”

Some of those lessons learned?

Trust. The importance of trusting his partner and their inner circle.

Commitment. Keeping, and winning, with those vital relationships, even if they lost and failed with the business venture.

Honesty. Never sweep anything under the rug. Use honesty as a unifier. A source of strength.

Get Real. Get to know your audience. Get to know what they want, instead of what you think they want. Get realistic. With your vision and your business plan.

Keep Going. Use failure as your springboard to success.

For more, read the full article here.