This is misleading. They were wrong in two cases. 1. They underestimated the difficulty and cost of the project. 2. They underestimated the profitability of t

This is misleading. They were wrong in two cases. 1. They underestimated the difficulty and cost of the project. 2. They underestimated the profitability of the project. Had their estimations been more accurate, they would have realized that it would have been profitable even at 10x the original estimate. They got lucky. Someone with more accurate estimates would have gotten the funding and succeeded as well - but had the project been unprofitable, his more accurate estimates would have steered him away from it. While ignorance may lead to more attempts on average, it will also create less value in the long term, as more of those attempts will fail. An entrepreneur with better knowledge is more likely to succeed.