I reason that the hard part was failing in spite of all those great things that she had managed to accomplish. That is super tough. She overcame many obstacles

I reason that the hard part was failing in spite of all those great things that she had managed to accomplish. That is super tough. She overcame many obstacles that, in her understanding, would bring her closer to the goal. In the end, the core of the business was not sound. Is it her fault? I don't think so. Its nobody's fault. A business is more of an experiment than anything. She may have felt that way because it was a very public failure and she was the face of the business. Which is a mistake in my opinion. Don't become the face of your business. Let the product take center stage. You should be the person behind the curtains making things happen, but never in the spotlight. If the product fails, all you have to do is find another product. No shame to deal with. I learned this from my first business failure. I was being the center of attention and loving it. But when it failed, I was crushed. Took me a while to understand that a business is merely a system that works around selling a product. Its not me. This has allowed me to build and sell products that fail without feeling shame or pain. Its just a product. It failed. Let's move on to the next.