e because eventually the child will be able to eat without painting their face with stewed apples. Success. The reason I admire Einstein’s thinking is because he took something demotivating, like failure, and ignited it with purpose. “Failure is success in progress” is energising, even liberating. It reminds us that failure isn’t a full stop; it’s a comma, a pause before the next attempt. When you see failure as success in progress, you stop fearing it. I wanted to know whether his theory held true for the people who build some of Australia’s most recognisable brands. The FMCG space is crowded, competitive and unforgiving. If failure really is success in progress, surely brand founders would have the clearest proof of it. What follows are the lessons from four Australian founders who chose to talk openly about the moments that felt like everything was going wrong — and how those same moments shaped what eventually went right. Turning chaos into clarity Lynda Chapman began her career as a buyer for Target, where she spent 13 years learning what makes a multi-brand retailer thrive. That experience shaped her future business ventures, including Kind Collective — a cruelty-free, 100 per cent vegan, PETA-accredited B Corp cosmetics brand. From the moment I met Chapman, I realised how much she embodies the ethos of her brand: kind. But building a business feels anything but kind, and I was curious about what moment felt like failure from the inside yet became something to celebrate in hindsight. “The launch of Kind Collective happened right in the middle of Covid, rolling out with our foundation partner Big W. Stores were shut depending on what state you were in, every planned activation was cancelled — it was a nightmare. I still remember setting up our first Big W store in Geelong. I was standing there with one of my team, crying, thinking how everything had gone wrong yet somehow, we’d made it through.” Now, Kind Collective is available across more than 500 Big W and Priceline stores, and 950 Woolworths stores across Australia. When asked what kept her going through the lowest moments, Chapman doesn’t sugarcoat it. The Covid years were incredibly tough, she says, and her team and their wellbeing were her number one focus. Still, one piece of advice has stayed with her. “A colleague once told me, when you feel like you’ve failed, pack that feeling into a purple box, learn from it, file it away and move on. I use that analogy of a purple box all the time because there are always going to be products that don’t work; colours that aren’t successful. What matters is that you learn from those moments and keep going.” Her attitude toward persistence is unwavering. “We’ve got a product launching in June and we’ve turned down six rounds of formula samples because we know it’s not right yet. That persistence to keep pushing through what isn’t working is what will make it great.” Learning to let go Rachael Wilde’s story begins not with glamour or scale but grit — the kind you discover when you’re building something from nothing. Wilde is the co-founder of tbh Skincare and managing director of York Street Brands. By 25, she had built a $22 million business, doing what many early founders do: everything. “In the early days, I tried to do everything myself — from packing orders to customer service to marketing. At the time, that was the reality; we didn’t have the money to pay anyone else to do the work. But there comes a point where that scrappy mindset starts to hold you back. “One moment that really stands out was when we decided to hand-pack our first ever Priceline order. We literally barcoded every product by hand, stacked all the cartons onto pallets and shrink-wrapped them ourselves. It was chaos, and we ended up having pretty major issues with our first delivery into retail. “At the time, I thought being hands-on was the mark of a good founder, but I’ve since learned there’s a limit to how far that can take you.” The cost, she says, wasn’t just operational. “We spent weeks doing work that could have been outsourced to someone who actually knew what they were doing. It cost us time, energy and sanity that would’ve been better spent figuring out how to sell the product once it hit shelves. It was a real lesson in working smarter, not harder.” One quote reframed her leadership entirely: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” After speaking with Wilde, it became clear this was a universal lesson: businesses grow when leaders stop believing they alone must hold everything together. Redefining risk as momentum Where Wilde’s challenge was overextension, Jaimee Lupton’s came from the sheer volume of decisions founders must make — fast, alone and without perfect information. Lupton is the co-founder of Monday Haircare, Daise Beauty and True Bodycare. With Monday Haircare distributed through more than 200 retailers, sold in 43 countries and ranking as the number one haircare brand on TikTok globally, it raises the question: what does failure even look like at that scale? “People often expect one big, career-defining failure, but the truth is there are hundreds of small decisions made every single day that can go right or wrong. No one’s there to tell you what to do. That ambiguity can be hard to navigate, especially when you’re just starting out. But over time, I’ve learned that the worst thing you can do is nothing because you’re afraid of making the wrong choice.” Agility, she says, has been central to growth. “You’ll never work harder than when you work for yourself. Your job is never finished because your customer is constantly evolving. Success, for us, has come from staying agile and constantly listening, innovating and evolving with our audience. That mindset helped us sell six months’ worth of stock in four weeks after launch.” For Lupton, failure is the catalyst, not the consequence. “Some of our biggest leaps forward came from ideas that didn’t go as planned. Failure is rarely the end; it’s often just the beginning of finding what truly works.” Simplifying to sustain purpose Daniel Flynn is the co-founder and managing director of Thankyou. He was 19 when he discovered that one billion people lacked access to clean water while the bottled water industry generated trillions in profit. The innovator in him asked a simple question: what if the profit from everyday consumer products could help end global poverty? Eighteen years on, Thankyou has expanded from water into multiple categories, but the journey was far from linear. “When we started Thankyou, we always saw it as an idea, not just a product. The idea was simple: how do we unlock profit from some of the world’s annual consumer spending and use it to right a wrong and end extreme poverty? Product became our bridge to that idea.” But transformation came through failure. “One of our biggest failures — and biggest lessons — was underestimating the complexity of each category we entered, and what it takes not just to survive but to win. After going from water into personal care, then food, then baby, we found ourselves fighting fires on every front. “Eventually, we had to make the hard call to pull out of food. Later, we lost the fight in baby care and nappies too, against some really fierce competition. Each of those moments felt like we were going backwards.” Those setbacks became the strategy. “We realised we don’t have to do everything ourselves. Our job is to build a world-class brand and mission, and partner with people who are world-class in their categories. That shift to brand licensing has become our future. It’s allowing Thankyou to re-enter categories, expand into new ones, and grow globally in a sustainable and more impactful way.” By the time the research wrapped, it was clear these weren’t just founder stories; they were lessons for anyone in the business of retail. Testing Einstein’s theory proved useful. So whether you’re building a business, leading a team, managing major projects or coaching the next generation, remember his words: failure is success in progress. Every stumble is simply a sign you’re moving forward.