Fail2Succeed, the first pan-European campaign of its kind, was launched at the European
Parliament on 18th December.

ThinkYoung’s survey shows that 50% of young Europeans are convinced that failure will be
perceived negatively by future business partners, but 70% of them would give a second chance
to someone who failed. Failure is perceived as a negative social label, but is regarded as
positive in terms of business capabilities and personal development.

The ThinkYoung proposal to harmonise the bankruptcy legislation in Europe, in line with the
work of the European Commission, is regarded as “extremely effective or very effective” by
80% of respondents.

According to Andrea Gerosa, founder of ThinkYoung, “an entrepreneurship-friendly
environment is the key to overcoming the stigma. Moreover, young Europeans do not blame
governments or institutions.”

The conference, hosted by Pablo Zalba Bidegain and organised by ThinkYoung and CES, will be
a public debate on the preliminary results of the Fail2Succeed research study. In addition,
ThinkYoung’s trailer of a documentary portraying young Europeans who have experienced
entrepreneurial failure will be showcased.

Over the years, we at ThinkYoung have reached the conclusion that cultural barriers, such as
the stigma of failure, need to be overcome in order to boost youth entrepreneurship. The
stigma can be broken down into sub-variables, some qualitative (stigma as fear of being judged
or even refused by peers), some formal (legislative regime and bank procedures for those who
have already faced a failure). We are convinced that entrepreneurs, whether prospective or
experienced, are facing a mix of both social and institutional pressures that cast a shadow over
their future entrepreneurial activities. For this reason, we launched the campaign
“Fail2Succeed” with the goal of changing the perception of business failure and of harmonising
the bankruptcy legislation at the European level.

The campaign consists of:
– a European survey
– an audio-visual study
– the mapping of all the European initiatives on failure
– a series of conferences to be held in 2014
– a policy proposal for the European and national institutions.

thinkyoung.eu