Learning by Failing : A qualitative study on entrepreneurial failure and how entrepreneurs respond to their past mistakes.

Sammanfattning: This thesis sets out to study how entrepreneurial failure takes form and how entrepreneurs are affected by entrepreneurial failure. This study aims to contribute another perspective of the mindset of entrepreneurial failure to academic research. Through a qualitative method and a quantitate analysis, this study explores how failure takes form and how entrepreneurs respond to failure. This study present empirical material of failure present itself and how a larger personal investment in an entrepreneurial career affect entrepreneurs self-image. Entrepreneurs learn by direct interactions and failures are is part of an entrepreneurs learning process. The findings of this study present that entrepreneurial failure takes multiple different forms and failure within entrepreneurship presents itself when an entrepreneur has lost financial capital, clients, a larger amount of time invested in something who didn’t benefit the venture or energy. The findings in this study show how the idea of practising entrepreneurship as a lifestyle can have negative effects on entrepreneurs health and self-esteem. The analysis explains how entrepreneurs who differentiate themselves from their failures can learn from experience because they view their actions objectively.