The House of Entrepreneurship will organize the first Fuckup Nights conference in Luxembourg-city in May. The goal? Sharing experiences of failure. We asked Guylaine Bouquet-Hanus, Business Manager at the House of Entrepreneurship to share more details about that event.
(Featured Image: #FuckupNights Vol. XIII edition in Leipzig / Image Credit © Rotkopf)
What is the FUN event?
Fuckup Nights (FUN) are testimonial evenings where entrepreneurs and professionals come to share their experiences of failure to better convey the keys to success and de-dramatize the fact of making mistakes.
FUN first started in 2012 in Mexico City. One evening, five friends were chatting over a drink and realized they were tired of hearing the same success stories told by “superhero entrepreneurs” for whom everything touched turned to gold. They then decided to take the opposite approach and share their chess stories. The concept quickly took off and became a monthly event, then a global project relayed via www.fuckupnights.com.
“This is not a question of promoting failure, but of starting from failures to analyze and learn from them.”
Why did you choose to organize FUN in Luxembourg?
We have not yet decided to bring the concept to Luxembourg in the form of a “City Chapter” but rather to include it in the Entrepreneurs’ Days Spring 2019, in the form of a tailor-made event, which will take place on 27 May at the House of Entrepreneurship.
For us, the added value was obvious. We associate ourselves with a network that now has several years’ experience in the field of failure and its media coverage.
If Luxembourg is now discovering Fuckup Nights, this movement is already widespread throughout the world with events organized in more than 200 cities and 70 countries and in 25 different languages.
Of course, this is not a question of promoting failure, but of starting from failures to analyze and learn from them. We are convinced that if more people, entrepreneurs or not, were to talk openly about their mistakes in Luxembourg, it would help eliminate the notion of “shame” that is still associated with failure, and even to understand that failure is sometimes beneficial. Accepting risk-taking is not yet integrated into the ecosystem, which is why, as the Entrepreneurship Department of the Chamber of Commerce, we would like to highlight the notion of a second chance. We are thus defending the idea of better supervision of companies in the future bankruptcy law, with the aim of intensifying the prevention of difficulties and facilitating the rebound after failure.
“The House of Entrepreneurship helps self-employed people and business leaders who are facing difficulties to take stock of their professional situation and find new ways to ensure the sustainability of their company.”
How do you support entrepreneurs in difficulty at the HoE?
Through its “one-stop shop to prevent” offer, the House of Entrepreneurship helps self-employed people and business leaders who are facing difficulties to take stock of their professional situation and find new ways to ensure the sustainability of their company, both in a preventive and curative perspective. At this stage, it is a pilot project for a difficulty prevention center that we tested in 2018 that puts aside the repressive approach and focuses instead on supporting the manager whose activity is stagnating, in slight or severe difficulty.
Support is divided into two areas:
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training and coaching workshops, organized in partnership with the House of Training, that cover key topics such as management, identification of new customers or sales increase strategies, and
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personalized advice, provided by experts from various sectors (lawyers, accountants, strategy or marketing experts, etc.) and chosen according to the needs and development priorities of each entrepreneur.
