Success stories dominate our feeds, blinding us to the quiet power of failure. But for boAt Co-founder and CMO Aman Gupta, failure isn’t just part of the process — it’s the part that matters most. In a candid post that cuts through the noise of curated wins, Gupta shares how his early stumbles shaped the grit behind his success. And he wants others to stop hiding theirs too.
Aman Gupta believes the fear of failure has become more crippling than failure itself. “We’ve become so obsessed with success that our ego for failure has grown even bigger,” the boAt Co-founder and CMO said in a LinkedIn post that’s now drawing wide attention.
He pointed to how social media’s constant highlight reel has made it harder to admit when things go wrong. “Success stories are trending so hard on social media that nobody’s got the guts to talk about failure anymore,” Gupta wrote, listing the inner doubts many quietly battle: “Main iski tarah nahi kar paya toh? Usne mujhse better kar liya toh? Try kiya aur nahi chala toh mazaak toh nahi udayenge?”
Gupta shared his own story, revealing how he studied 17 hours a day for the CA exam before realising it wasn’t his path. “Every time I tried building something of my own, I failed. But with every failure, my ability to try again only grew stronger,” he wrote. “Slowly, I stopped caring about ‘log kya sochenge?’ and started caring about ‘Am I trying enough?’”
He urged others to push past the fear of judgment: “Fail once and see. Maybe fail a subject, fail at a course or anything. The ego around failure will vanish.” The Shark Tank India judge reflected on how the same people who doubted him now say, “Hum isko jaante hain!”
“Success builds confidence. But failures give clarity,” Gupta concluded. “And this is why I say — you’re down but not out, my friend. Till then you gotta say. #IDK #IDC #IDGAF.”
His post struck a chord with many. One user replied, “This hit deep… ‘Fail once and see’ — that line will stay with me.” Another said, “In a world that hides failure behind filters, your honesty is rare and refreshing. Your journey reminds us that it’s okay to not have it all figured out.”
