Trust, faith, laughter, and five more lessons you can learn from failure

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Like it or not, failure is very real - and maybe it would be a little less scary if people talked about it more.

That was why Todd Smith, an Iowa City-based venture capitalist, decided to focus on failing when he spoke to hundreds of University of Iowa students and community members Tuesday evening, as part of the Sandage Lecture Series.

In 2006, his company Clear!Blue was named to the prestigious Inc. 500 list, and Smith was named an entrepreneur of the year by Ernst & Young.

But most of Clear!Blue's clients were in the auto industry, and when Detroit's economy crashed in 2008, the company crashed along with it. Smith lost millions in personal wealth, and to add insult to injury, his Escalade was vandalized.

From the time he was young, including when he was a business student at the University of Iowa, he lived in a culture where the expectation was to win, Smith said.

"Everything I was built up to do was to be successful, to be a business person, and it was over," he said.

The first few months of 2009 are a blur, he said, as he would spend hours driving and reevaluating his life.

But today, Smith is able to see the "gifts of failure." He moved back to Iowa City and founded Dreamfield Ventures, a seed fund that is starting to make waves (including a pledge to invest in at least one Iowa Startup Accelerator team at Launch Day).

"It gives you this really unique opportunity to reevaluate things," he said.

He distilled his lessons learned into eight points:

1. Everything is temporary if you give it enough time - and that's true for both the good and the bad.

2. Matter - have it make a difference that you lived.

3. Have faith - not in a religious way, but be optimistic, believe in other people, and believe in yourself. No one wants to follow a pessimist.

4. Trust - measure twice, cut once (but don't trust a bank).

5. Trust your Iowa - if a decision doesn't feel good, trust the voice in your head.

6. Know what you believe - and write it down.

7. Let go - know when it's time to walk away.

8. Laugh - a lot.