Daymond here.

Last week, we talked about how to put yourself out there, create your brand, and build up an incredible deal flow pipeline. If you missed it, you can catch up by going here.

I told you that it is totally possible to be a successful angel investor, no matter how much money you have at your disposal.

I stand by that, and I always will. But there’s something important you need to know.

Succeeding in the startup world also means you need to conquer your fear of failure… whether you’re an entrepreneur building a new business or the investor sitting on the other side of the table.

It’s a secret that I learned early on in my career.

Failure is necessary for growth and success. In fact, we learn our best lessons by learning how to get back up after something or someone knocks us down.

In your own investing journey, you might make a few mistakes along the way.

Maybe one of your investments won’t pan out the way you’d like it to. Maybe you’ll put your trust into a founder who will ultimately sink their company. Or maybe you’ll miss out entirely on investing in what becomes the next Tesla, Facebook, Apple, or anything else.

Mistakes like this happen, and they happen all the time. But I believe you need to have these struggles earlier in your life and career to truly appreciate the success you have later on.

I’ll tell you a little story.

In 1989, I launched FUBU for the first time. Over the next three years, I ended up opening and closing the business three different times because I didn’t have the money to keep it going.

But FUBU was always my passion. I loved – and still love – hip hop and fashion, and it was that passion that inspired me to keep relaunching. During FUBU’s “off years,” I remember people coming up to me to ask where they could find the FUBU apparel they’d bought before when the company was open.

I knew there was a market for what I was selling… I just had to get it off the ground. I loved this business, and I did everything I could to figure it out.

When FUBU officially launched in 1992, it was a challenge. At the time, I didn’t always know what to do with my money, and I blew through my first few million dollars quickly. I doubted myself constantly, and there were times I wanted to quit.

But my passion for business and desire to learn kept me going, and I’m glad they did.

Today, FUBU is a $6 billion global brand, and I owe much of that success to the sacrifices and slip-ups I made earlier in my career. They were difficult and uncomfortable at the time, but they taught me so much.

Now, I know how to deal with problems and pain points as they come up… whether it’s in my business, my investments, or even my personal life.

Because I’ve learned from these failures, I can cope with any future mistakes I make. I’ve built resiliency. These days, I’m more afraid of avoiding the lessons learned from failure than failure itself.

And above all, I learned that not everything is about the money. It’s about the passion you bring to a project and the impact that project makes.

So at the end of the day, here’s what I want you to take away from all of this…

Don’t be afraid of failure. It’s a necessary process… and it’s only a bad thing if you let your failures get you down. Instead, flip the script.

What lessons did your failure teach you? And how can you use your failure as a teachable moment so that you can be successful the next time around?

Answer those questions, and you’ll be well on your way to angel investing success.

Have a great rest of your day, and don’t go anywhere too soon. Next week, I want to share the top 3 questions you need to ask every single founding team before investing in their company.

I’ll be in touch shortly.

Daymond John