Dear Fuck-uppers and to-be Fuck-uppers,

If you were there yesterday, you recognise the feeling of relief. That’s at least the feeling I have attending a FuckUp Night. And each time it grows stronger. I’m talking about the relief of pressure to perform. Once that relief has settled, iz when your mind opens up and you dare to think wider and further. If you think that everything you do in life has to have a straight development line, or has to show results or else you’re a loser – think again.

Listening to others share their stories about failure simply makes me feel better. Because they came kinda alright out of it, some much stronger. It gives me an extra boost to dare to jump when there’s a whole lot of risk involved.

The FuckUp Night’s talks are short and just with the right amount of inspiration. For those of you who know the TEDTalks – they are different. TEDTalks are fantastically inspiring and the presentations follow a standard success formula. Here.. at FuckUp Nights – there is only one rule: 7 min. Make 10 slides and be prepared to speak 40 seconds on each slide. There are no speaking instructions. Speak loudly into the mic, shake, tremble on the voice, wander back and forth on stage, hide behind the podium. Whatever you feel like. You do it. It shows the human side of the presenter and it makes it easier to connect.

I arrive to a FuckUp Nights with a humble listening approach. No expectations. It’s one thing to go on stage and tell people how to do things, share a success story or teach about an important matter. But the person on stage here is actually sharing a personal failure in public. Can it get any more daring than that? Each speaker at FuckUp Nights becomes a personal hero.

Few key take aways from FuckUp Nights vol VI:

• Know the business you’re in. It doesn’t matter how much experience you have of creating successful businesses, there is no standard formula and the most important element will be to know very well the business you’re getting yourself into (Carina Verveckken, founder and CEO of WOG Business)
• Understand the organisational culture. It doesn’t matter how well acquainted you are with a subject if you cannot deliver the solution you are asked to provide. The delivery will depend heavily on the way you approach change. How and to whom you speak. If you understand the internal culture you will be able to better integrate your ideas. (Antoine Parmentier, business engineer with more than 20 years experience in the oil & gas sector)
• Never give up. There may be barriers, even a few which seem unbeatable. But keep in mind that there is a time for everything. (Paal Frisvold, Managing Director of The Brussels Office, Brusselkontoret)
• Trust your knowledge. You may go bankrupt. it is OK. Trust in what you know and get back in touch with clients which you had a good relationship with and rebuild the trust in between you. (David Kesteloot, freelance IT-project manager and founder of Linked-IT)

If you haven’t been to a FuckUp Night yet, you ought to get yourself together.

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FuckUp Nights Brussels is organized by Antiheroes.org/In collaboration with Beursschouwburg.be/ Sponsored by Loftspace.co/In partnership with 1819.be