Own the Failure (100% Accountability Test)
It was 100% your fault. Until I hear that, I never invest.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~ongoing to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 90%
O'Leary says the thing that drives him crazy is founders who describe a failed business and then list every reason it wasn't their fault. To him it's 100% their fault — they were the founder and the CEO, so they are the person who failed. Unless he hears that ownership, he never invests. He rejects the 'market changed / competitors cut prices / China dumped' excuses as nonsense. The uncomfortable ritual he uses is metaphorically sticking a founder's nose in their failure the way you'd house-train a puppy, because only when you can smell your own failure and accept it does the real growth begin.
Origin
After being pitched by countless founders who blamed external forces for prior failures, O'Leary made total accountability a hard investment filter. He describes forcing founders to confront their failure so directly that some walk away in tears — but he sees it as the necessary catalyst for growth.
Core principles
- 01The founder and CEO is 100% responsible for a company's failure — no external excuse is valid.
- 02Blaming the market, competitors, or dumping is a disqualifying tell.
- 03Investors back people who own their failure and reject those who deflect it.
- 04Owning failure completely is the precondition for real learning and growth.
- 05The moment you can smell your own failure and accept it is when real growth begins.
How to run it
- 1
Assign yourself full responsibility
When a venture fails, state that it was 100% your fault as the founder and CEO. You were the person in charge, so you were the person who failed.
- 2
Reject every external excuse
Refuse the tempting explanations — the market changed, competitors cut prices, China dumped. O'Leary calls all of it nonsense.
Watch out Listing reasons it wasn't your fault is exactly the tell that makes O'Leary refuse to invest.
- 3
Smell it and accept it
Confront the failure directly and viscerally. O'Leary compares it to sticking a puppy's nose in its mess — the discomfort is what makes the lesson stick.
- 4
Convert ownership into the next move
Owning the failure completely is where real growth begins. Take the lesson as ammunition and apply it to the next venture.
Pro tip When you later pitch, narrate past failure with full ownership — it earns respect and investment.
In the wild
When O'Leary asks a founder what they did the last two years and they describe a failed business while blaming the market, competitors, and dumping from China, he classifies it as all nonsense and a disqualifier.
→ Unless the founder owns the failure as 100% theirs, O'Leary never invests in them.
Common mistakes
Externalizing blame
Attributing failure to market conditions or competitors prevents learning and signals to investors that you're not accountable or coachable.
Softening the ownership
Partial or hedged ownership fails the test; O'Leary wants the founder to fully accept it was their fault before he'll back them.
Is it for you?
Best for
Founders building self-awareness and investors screening for coachable, accountable operators.
Not ideal for
Contexts where genuine external, uncontrollable events truly dominate and honesty requires nuance.
From the transcript
“They are the person who failed. Unless I hear that, I never invest in them.”
“I stick their nose in their failure and I whack them with a newspaper and say, this is your fault. You dumped this. You failed.…”
From the episode
Kevin O'Leary: The Game-Changing Habits That Set Top Entrepreneurs Apart
Kevin O'Leary