Failure isn’t as simple as we assume it to be when we’re all trying to avoid it. Failure has layers and it has degrees, as does success. I’ve learned a lot about failure in the past year and a half, but I received my degree in failure just a little over a week ago when I decided to leave Pocket Tales. As a graduate, I can tell you there is only one definitive thing to know about failure:

You only fail when you decide to stop trying. That is true 100% of the time.

I can’t think of a single other attribute of failure or failure’s existence that is always true. Whether failure is a net positive or negative depends on the circumstances. With Pocket Tales, we originally failed to build a successful business around converting children’s books into iPhone apps. The only reason that failed was because we DECIDED to stop trying to make it work. I think that was a positive failure because it allowed us to land on an idea that I think was much better and much more disruptive.

Someone once tried to tell me that the number one reason businesses fail is because they run out of cash. I’m not buying it. The number one reason businesses fail is because the entrepreneur decides to quit. He or she decides the expected outcome is not worth the price. It’s a decision to stop trying.

Maybe a VC or angel didn’t invest, but that doesn’t represent failure. If your goal was to raise money from that VC, then in order to avoid failure you would build another business and try to raise money from them again. If your goal was really to build a successful business, than not raising money from that VC/angel isn’t failure. There are always other ways to try to get cash or other ways to build your business without cash.

It may seem like I’m just playing with words. That I’m saying that one can avoid failure by redefining the goal, which is true, but it isn’t trivial. Your startup has not failed until you stopped trying to make it work. It’s an important thing to learn because it sets the right attitude for success. You are in control. Things don’t happen to you. You make things happen.

Don’t read my axiom on failure as a statement that you should never stop trying. That’s not my point at all. If I believed that, I wouldn’t have left Pocket Tales. I only want to point out that failure is a decision to be made. Own that decision.

Besides waxing philosophic on failure, the purpose of this post is to announce that I am no longer with Pocket Tales. I will save the “why I failed with Pocket Tales” post for another day. (If that sounds mysterious, it’s not meant to, ha)

It’s important to note that Pocket Tales itself has not failed and I still believe the vision has huge potential. My friend and co-founder Yaw Aning has decided to continue building the business. Pocket Tales continues to support its users and plan for the future. If you’re interested, you should go to www.pockettales.com right now and get in line for a beta invite. You may even get an invite to the alpha which is currently available.

I will continue to be involved from an advisor role, but my full-time efforts will be focused on a new opportunity. I don’t know what that is yet, but I’m planning to stay in the startup world with the goal of learning something new.

I don’t think I can be more pithy than my headline currently is in summing up a deep philosophical question I’ve struggled with ever since starting Pocket Tales.

Is being logical, logical?

Without hesitation I answer this question “yes” and add that we should always strive to be logical, but that’s the easy part of the question and just the tip of the issue. Let me show you what I mean.

Read this Business Week article from 2001 (read that date again, that’s almost a decade ago): “Sorry Steve: Here’s Why Apple Stores Won’t Work?”

Then check out this post about Malcom Gladwell’s “Blink” vs. Michael M. Lewis’ “Moneyball.”

Finally, in “Mad Men” Season 4, Episode 4 the hypothesis of creative advertising genius Don Draper is being challenged by “facts” from a focus group. His response to the focus group is it has “nothing to do with what I do.”

What do all of these have in common? They demonstrate a titanic debate between two sides. One side says we must believe the facts. The other side says the facts as we know them right now don’t lead us to the truth.

In a startup, this is a core issue that will determine how you run your company. Will you only make decisions based on tangible data? How will you know when you have enough data to get an accurate picture? Conversely, will you favor your gut over the facts? How will you know when to trust your gut?

Every entrepreneur strives to be rational. No successful person believes the path to success is acting randomly, but sometimes what we know in our gut contradicts the facts. When we act on our gut, it looks random to others. It looks illogical, even though it’s not. This creates a problem when you have employees, advisors, and investors looking over your shoulder.

Like most things in life, there isn’t one right way. Your gut is as valuable a tool as Google Analytics, but you will second-guess your decisions, and others will second-guess them too. The goal is to know whether you’re following the reason of tangible facts, or the less tangible reason of your gut. This self awareness will help you make decisions more confidently and to sell your decisions to others.

Learn this concept: Network Effect Startup

Steve Jobs quoting Picasso’s “Good artists copy. Great artists steal.” and saying that Apple has “always been shameless about stealing great ideas.” It’s important to understand that copying is just creating an exact replica, whereas stealing is taking an idea and making it your own.

In less than 7 minutes this video shows us that kindergarteners are the natural champions of the lean startup methodology and every business class we take further dilutes our successful, natural instincts.

“Business students are trained to find the single, right plan…what kindergarteners do differently is that they start with the marshmallow and they build prototypes” (Biz Students vs. Kindergartners starts at 1:50)

“With each version kids get instant feedback of what works and what doesn’t” (3:11)

“Sometimes, a little prototype of this experience is all that it takes to turn us from an uh-oh moment to a ta-da moment.” (6:34)

I think this “marshmallow challenge” could also be a great interview activity for lean startups.