[Jeon Daegyu's 7 Wins 8 Losses] Yang Joon-il and Joanne Rowling's 'Praise of Failure'

Jeon Dae-gyu, Chief Judge of Seoul Bankruptcy Court

Since last year, newtro has been trending beyond retro. Among various fields, music has seen the strongest newtro craze. Amid this newtro wave, the singer Yang Joon-il stands out. He debuted in 1991 but disappeared shortly after; however, on December 31 last year, he held his first fan meeting amid nationwide attention. What is intriguing about him is that at one point, he lived a thoroughly failed life. Yet, through a celebrity program (Sugar Man) at the end of last year, he gained the attention of many people.

Regarding why he pursued music that was socially difficult to accept at the time in 1991 (which, from today’s perspective, was a genius attempt ahead of its time) and ultimately failed, Yang Joon-il calmly said, "It was the music I wanted to do, and whether you release an album and fail or open a chicken restaurant and fail, isn’t it the same thing?" He added that it is because he thoroughly experienced failure that he is who he is today. His words were sincere, and I could empathize with how much he realized through failure. Now, whenever I hear his song "Rebecca" somewhere, a smile naturally comes to my face.

Joanne K. Rowling, the British author famous for the "Harry Potter" series, was born into a poor family, started working immediately after graduating from university, and got married. However, the marriage soon ended in divorce, and she lived as a single mother. Seven years after graduating from university, her life was, by any measure, a complete failure. Yet, in that desperate life, she began writing the "Harry Potter" series and achieved tremendous success. She gave a commencement speech at Harvard University in 2008. One of the things she spoke about in her speech was the benefits of failure. She talked about the advantages of failing.

Rowling described what one gains from failure as "failure strips away all the unnecessary things in life." By doing so, she was able to accept her failed self as she was and pour all her passion into the one novel she valued most. She recalled that if she had succeeded in anything other than writing novels, she would not have been able to firmly resolve to succeed in writing the novel she truly wanted. She said that having experienced the failure she feared so much, she finally became free from the fear of failure.

Everyone can fail in life. If you are extremely cautious and careful, you might avoid failure, but living that way is not life. If you do not attempt anything because you fear failure, even without failing, life itself is a failure. She added that we cannot know how strong we are or how strong our relationships are until we go through trials.

Our society is not tolerant of failure. According to statistics released by the Financial Services Commission, the average number of failures experienced by venture startups is 2.8 times in the U.S. and China, but only 1.3 times in Korea. This shows that our evaluation of failure is harsh, and the atmosphere for socially accepting a fresh start after failure is not well established.

Recently, the government mandated that when a listed company notifies or announces the convening of a shareholders’ meeting for the purpose of appointing directors or auditors, it must notify or announce whether the candidate has served as an executive in a company that has undergone rehabilitation or bankruptcy proceedings within the last five years as of the meeting date. However, this raises concerns because whether the executive worked at a company that went through rehabilitation or bankruptcy does not necessarily disqualify them as a manager. Even if they failed, the entrepreneurial experience gained there is a valuable human asset that can be fully utilized in new ventures. Elizabeth Warren’s insight that "Businesses fail" is enviable. Now, we too need to become more tolerant of failure.