Failing in Business Isn't Even Failing — It's Gaining Life Experience

Taking risks in business means that sometimes you will fail, says AOL cofounder Steve Case. Experimentation is the essence of progress, whether it's in the sciences or in business, and most major social achievements are a result of a big ideas realized through countless small experiments. In America's quest to land a man on the moon, for example, committing small mistakes along the way was the only path toward success.

Case gives another example: Babe Ruth. Yes, the Great Bambino is remembered for being the home run king, but he was also the strikeout king. "If you're swinging for the fences," says Case, "you’re going to strike out. But you have to keep at it and if you keep at it you sometimes will have those homeruns. Sometimes you’ll win those games." Thus failing in business isn't really failing at all, but rather gaining life experience, so you'll do better the next time around.

In this video clip, Case discusses some of the roadblocks he encountered as co-founder of AOL, which at one point brought the Internet to half of all Americans going online. Case's book is The Third Wave: An Entrepreneur's Vision of the Future.

Steve Case is one of America’s most accomplished entrepreneurs—a pioneer who made the Internet part of everyday life and orchestrated the largest merger in the history of business between America Online and Time Warner.  Case’s entrepreneurial career began when he cofounded AOL, which became the top performing company of the 1990s. At its peak, nearly half of Internet users in the United States signed on through AOL. As chairman and CEO of Revolution, a Washington, DC-based investment firm he cofounded in 2005, Case partners with visionary entrepreneurs to build businesses such as Zipcar, LivingSocial, Sweetgreen, and many others. Case was the founding chair of the Startup America Partnership—an effort launched at the White House to accelerate high-growth entrepreneurship throughout the nation. A member of the Presidential Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship, Case also serves as Chairman of the Case Foundation, which he established with his wife Jean in 1997.