Asian Canadian entrepreneurs share stories of failure at 10th anniversary of Vancouver Startup Week
An #AsianFail is anything less than an “A”
Across many Asian cultures, there is a fear of failure…and the weight of the shame that comes with failure. There can be far and long-reaching implications for the person who failed, but also for previous and future generations.
From academics, to extracurricular activities, to life milestones, career, money and more, the dominant narrative is that anything less than exceptional is considered a failure. Does this resonate?
Cold Tea Collective hosted an event as part of the 10th anniversary of Vancouver Startup Week called “#AsianFails and Fixes: Spotlight on the Asian Canadian Startup Community”.
The purpose of our event was to bring together a panel of successful entrepreneurs across various industries in Vancouver, who have at some point failed in business, and to share how they fixed or moved past them.
Our aim was to create an open, honest and supportive environment and a sense of community in sharing our failures openly – and that is exactly what our panelists did.
See highlights below from our #AsianFails podcast launch event as part of Vancouver Startup Week.
Why talk about failure?
Cold Tea Collective’s mission is to empower the next generation of the Asian diaspora to live their most authentic and fulfilled lives. Talking about failing while Asian and pushing against the model minority myth for example, is an often-overlooked, but very important part of that.
From publishing stories for and by the Asian diaspora for the last eight years, we know that personal stories are powerful – but only if we have the courage to share them.
The more we talk about failure, the more normal it becomes, and the less fear there will be around taking risks and being vulnerable. We can start to take off our masks and connect with people as humans and not…
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