Early Failures Are the Best Education You’ll Ever Get

A personal reflection on how early failures shaped my mindset, strengthened my problem-solving skills, and taught lessons that no classroom ever could.

First computer and a thousand “whys”

When I was 12, maybe 13, I got my first computer. At that time, like every kid, I was really interested in playing games and watching entertaining YouTube videos. For me, a kid from a middle-income family from not the best neighborhood with a traditional mindset, the computer became a gateway to a different world. For that reason, it was hard for me to find people who shared the same interests or mindset. Most of the time, after school, we would play games on our computer (which would start overheating after just 15 minutes :D).

The First Leap: From Simple Apps to a Digital Business

However, what made me different was that — since childhood — I always tried to find the logic behind everything. I’ve always been the kind of person who asks, Why? and How? Why is it like this? Why do I do this? When I was playing a game, it felt like magic happening right on my small screen. I kept asking myself: How does this work? That curiosity was the beginning of my programming journey. I started with simple experiments — I tried making some apps and games just to understand the logic behind them.

After many failed attempts, I finally created a little rabbit game. You could use the arrow keys to move the rabbit and overcome obstacles to win levels. I was excited when I saw that I had actually done it; it was simple, but it was mine. That first taste of creation made me want to do more.

I moved from games to programming plug-ins for popular online games. There was a website where people sold plug-ins. Most of them required a portfolio or some kind of experience, which I didn’t have at the time because I was just a kid.

But I found one website where I could buy a “Seller” tag for a small amount of money. Somehow, I managed to buy it. At that time, everyone was worried about entering card details on websites due to scams and poor security. As a kid, I didn’t have a credit card, and I think you can guess how I bought it! Honestly, I didn’t have much hope of selling anything online. But one day, I received a notification: “Your plug-in was sold”. For a kid, it felt like a huge achievement. It wasn’t about the money; it was proof that something I built had value to someone else. Sales continued for a while before eventually stopping, but the spark was lit.

This led me to the most surprising part: building a team with people I’d never met — most of them were from Turkey. We never saw each other’s faces or even heard each other’s voices. We trusted each other only through chat. It sounds funny to me now. How can you trust someone you know nothing about except what they type in a chat?

One of them had a credit card, and eventually, he said, I can help you. All the earnings from my sales went to his card, and, I don’t know why, but he sent me all the money! 😀 After that, I expanded my team, and we started to program apps, games, and other things. We became really good friends. The funny part is — they didn’t know I was a kid! This went on for a while, and I gained programming experience without ever attending a course. This period taught me invaluable lessons about programming — all learned through practice and YouTube videos. I only understood 1/4 of it because of my limited English!

Transition to The Tangible Products

As I grew older, my projects became more ambitious. During high school, I developed a desktop application to help students study more efficiently. It featured a simple navigation bar listing subjects like Math, Literature, and Biology. Clicking on a subject would open a window with the most important information and key formulas. The best part was the interactive calculator — students could input data, and the formulas would instantly compute the result. It was my way of making studying a little easier and more engaging.

My passion for creating didn’t stop there. I built numerous websites, ranging from personal blogs to pages where I embedded simple games. Those who remember the early days of the web will recall the thrill of pasting a snippet of code into a site editor and suddenly having a playable game right there on the webpage! One of my favorite collaborative projects was an “Auto Blog” website I created with my cousin, who was a huge car enthusiast. We aimed to share the latest news and reviews about all car models, combining his knowledge with my technical skills.

One day in high school, I noticed that everyone was buying gift boxes with flowers and other items for their loved ones. I looked at them and realized something: these boxes were just items from the supermarket placed in a fancy box with a ribbon! I thought, “I can do that.”
There’s a place in Baku where people buy wholesale products. I called a taxi and went there alone. I bought 10–15 boxes at low prices. Actually, I was a bit foolish 😀 Because I spent too much on the taxi. That made the whole trip pointless — it was only 10% cheaper! If I had bought in bulk, it would have been worth it. But I made a mistake and learned from it. Everyone makes mistakes 😀

I came home and created an Instagram page. I found beautiful gift box photos on Pinterest and posted them to show people what I could offer. Since I had little money, my plan was smart: I would only buy the items after I received an order. At first, it didn’t work because there were big companies in the market. I was basically invisible. But those companies had high profit margins, while I was a one-person team :D, so I could set much lower prices. Once people noticed they could get the same thing for less, sales started coming in.

But then, the business became complicated — everyone wanted different customizations. I even rented a very cheap basement space to use as a workshop.

I started preparing the orders there, with help from friends or people I paid small amounts to. It was a crash course in logistics, customization, and customer service. Ultimately, I couldn’t handle the growing demands while preparing for university admissions, but the experience was priceless.

The Student Entrepreneur: Theory, Bitcoin, and Market Research

With my programming background, I applied to a business school — mainly because of pressure from people around me. They pushed me toward business instead of tech. At university, I never stopped wanting to do something business-related. In the early years of my bachelor’s, I lost motivation for programming. I forgot a lot of what I had learned. But I wanted to prove myself in business, because that was my field now.

I noticed that schools teach you how to manage or grow a business, but not how to start one from scratch. At least, that was my experience. I still wanted to start a business.

First, I looked for ways to earn money. Bitcoin was trending at the time. I watched tons of videos, joined group chats, channels, and forums to learn more.

I first invested $50 into my Binance account. But I didn’t know about the commission fees! I don’t know if it was due to my country, bank, or something else, but I was charged about $70 for that $50 deposit. I felt crazy — it meant I was starting at -$20. I had to earn back that $20 before making any actual profit. And Binance would also charge a fee when I withdrew. So, I thought I wouldn’t be able to get the money at all 😀 But over time, that $50 became more than $1,500. I decided to use it to start another business…

I started researching what I could sell in Baku. I also shared my idea with a friend, and he agreed to invest some money so we could grow the business. We spent the first two months doing market research. We even stood outside electronics stores for hours, observing which products people bought. We wrote all the data into Excel. We didn’t know wholesale prices, though. For example, we knew that a product sold for $60 retail but had no idea how much we needed to pay for it wholesale to earn a profit. So, I know it wasn’t the most honest method, but we created an Instagram page and told stores that we were selling the same product for $30 (with different prices for different quantities and a minimum order). It was a totally random number. Our only aim was to learn their price. It worked! Most stores replied, “Are you crazy? $30 is too expensive! We buy them for $20.” Bingo! Now we knew the wholesale price.

Next came the challenge of importing products from China to Baku at optimal costs. I negotiated with many manufacturers to get the electronics at the price we needed.

Eventually, we succeeded, imported the products, and sold them wholesale to many stores in Baku and made a solid profit. We were still students, so we decided to focus on our studies for a while..

Later, while browsing the internet, I came across a printing machine. It was used to print custom designs on t-shirts, hoodies, bags, and so on. We researched this both online and in Baku. We found a local business that did this work and contacted them to buy their old and extra machines instead of importing from China. They agreed.

We opened a store and started this new venture. Within a month, our sales outpaced every other store in that market. Everyone was shocked! It was all because of our smart marketing strategy and store location (I’ll talk more about our strategy in another article).

I learned a lot from this business — leading teams, solving problems, managing sales and distribution, detecting fraud, crisis management, communicating with customers, building loyalty, and understanding different customer personalities. I’ve learned a lot from my experiences.

Conclusion: The Only True Failure is Losing Your Enthusiasm

You can be a student, but with only theoretical knowledge, it’s nearly impossible to succeed in today’s world. What I’ve shared here is just a small part of the ventures I’ve been involved in. When I look back, I see tons of experiences — probably most of them unsuccessful. But the successful businesses I built were direct results of the lessons I learned from my failures. The main point isn’t about avoiding mistakes. You will make mistakes. But what really matters is learning from them. If you can’t take lessons from your failures, you’ll just keep repeating them.

These experiences now give me strength and confidence. Of course, it was risky doing all of this as a student. But you’ll become stronger after graduation. Every business student should take risks. Some students might ask, Why should I spend my $1,000 on a business? I could buy clothes, a smartphone, or eat at fancy restaurants. Sure, they can do that. But that’s not a business mindset. People like us, who are willing to spend the last $1 in their pocket — with the hope that it’ll bring back a lot more — are the ones who win in life! Don’t be afraid to start a business early, even in high school or college. At the very least, you’ll learn from your mistakes earlier than others who wait.. There’s a quote I like:

“The worst bankrupt in the world is the man who has lost his enthusiasm”.
– H.W. Arnold