99U | Rob Forbes: How I Survived My Worst Failure @99u | Uploaded November 2015 | Updated October 2024, 13 hours ago.
About this presentation
In this presentation, entrepreneur Rob Forbes recounts his biggest failure: the underwhelming launch of PUBLIC Bikes. “It had me in the fetal position,” he says. “I’ve never been so wrong in my life.” Forbes recounts how the humbling experience made him return to basics and value creativity over being clever, giving him a new mantra: “Failure is an option.”
Watch more videos here: 99u.com/videos
About Rob Forbes
Rob Forbes has been a ceramic artist, professor, author, publisher, photographer, and business entrepreneur. He has held executive positions at numerous retail companies including Williams Sonoma, Selfridges, and The Nature Company, but is best known as the Founder of Design Within Reach (1998) and PUBLIC Bikes (2009). DWR pioneered many changes that have become mainstream today: internet retailing of modern design, design blogging, transparent pricing policies, and a focus on designers themselves as much as on their products. PUBLIC bikes is a similar business venture but with a mission to bring design awareness to our public urban spaces and to our civic lives. Rob has received numerous awards and public recognition for his advocacy of design and urbanism and serves on numerous boards in the non-profit sector. He recently authored See for Yourself published by Chronicle Books, which includes over 500 images and asks us to look more carefully and curiously at everyday design in our man-made world.
About 99U
The 99U delivers the action-oriented education that you didn't get in school, highlighting real-world best practices for making ideas happen.
About this presentation
In this presentation, entrepreneur Rob Forbes recounts his biggest failure: the underwhelming launch of PUBLIC Bikes. “It had me in the fetal position,” he says. “I’ve never been so wrong in my life.” Forbes recounts how the humbling experience made him return to basics and value creativity over being clever, giving him a new mantra: “Failure is an option.”
Watch more videos here: 99u.com/videos
About Rob Forbes
Rob Forbes has been a ceramic artist, professor, author, publisher, photographer, and business entrepreneur. He has held executive positions at numerous retail companies including Williams Sonoma, Selfridges, and The Nature Company, but is best known as the Founder of Design Within Reach (1998) and PUBLIC Bikes (2009). DWR pioneered many changes that have become mainstream today: internet retailing of modern design, design blogging, transparent pricing policies, and a focus on designers themselves as much as on their products. PUBLIC bikes is a similar business venture but with a mission to bring design awareness to our public urban spaces and to our civic lives. Rob has received numerous awards and public recognition for his advocacy of design and urbanism and serves on numerous boards in the non-profit sector. He recently authored See for Yourself published by Chronicle Books, which includes over 500 images and asks us to look more carefully and curiously at everyday design in our man-made world.
About 99U
The 99U delivers the action-oriented education that you didn't get in school, highlighting real-world best practices for making ideas happen.
