That's not grounds for writing someone off, but it's not always a positive thing either. I would fail miserably at running a marathon, but I don't think that gi

That's not grounds for writing someone off, but it's not always a positive thing either. I would fail miserably at running a marathon, but I don't think that gives me any insight into running marathons. Going someplace where everyone fails and (surprise!) failing might also just as easily be a sign of poor judgement as the failing itself, depending on the circumstances. Tons of rich kids who can afford to fail come here and attempt it just because for them, failure has minimal consequences, and they figure they'll either win the startup lottery or give up in a few years, and worst-case they will have spent a few post-college years having fun working with their buddies and delaying getting a "real" job (in their view). Other people might get much more out of their failed startup experience, but there's just a really wide range of who does it for what reasons, and what they get out of the experience.