Why 99% Fail (and How You Can Join the 1%)

99% of entrepreneurs fail. What separates the 1% who succeed? Is it luck? Intelligence? Connections? No. The answer is simpler—and harder—than you might think. Today, I’m sharing the secret that transformed my life, taking me from burnout and fear to freedom and fulfillment. And no, it’s not what you think.

Let’s start here: I’ve always felt like a loser. Even when the world saw me as a success.

Introduction: The Illusion of Success

From many external measures, I seemed successful. I grew up in China, navigated one of the most rigorous college entrance exams in the world, and earned admission to Renmin University of China, one of the country’s top institutions. Later, I pursued a master’s degree at USC and worked at global companies like Disney, Fox, and DreamWorks. I even joined a tech startup called Bytedance, back then in 2016, it was called a startup, now known as the parent company of Tiktok, and helped it develop the US market from zero to one. Eventually, I founded my own startup, growing it to a $15 million valuation.

But here’s the truth: despite all this, I constantly felt like a failure.

And this is the secret I want to share with you today: I have always felt like a loser. Even though people saw me as confident and full of energy, deep down, I was driven by a constant belief that I wasn’t enough. This mindset of “being a failure” was actually the tool that kept pushing me forward to achieve what many would call “success”.

As a student, whenever I performed well, I would immediately tell myself: “You need to work harder for the next exam. Don’t relax; you can’t afford to get complacent.” Even when I felt calm, I would use this inner critic to whip myself into a state of tension and urgency, ensuring I always stayed focused and worked hard.

Later, at one of the startups I joined, this mindset was reinforced by its OKR system. Leaders would set aggressive targets, expecting employees to achieve only 60%. If you exceeded that, your goals weren’t ambitious enough. If you fell short, it reflected poorly on your abilities. This system created an environment where everyone constantly felt inadequate. We were all being driven forward by a relentless sense of not being good enough. It was a high-growth company with incredible market value, but the cost of that growth was burnout, high employee turnover, and a lack of sustainable personal development.

When I started my own company, this same pressure escalated. My investors required monthly reports and meetings, constantly pushing for more progress. Even after working 14-hour days, I felt like I wasn’t doing enough—that I could be more efficient, more productive, more innovative. Every day, I lived in a state of failure.

For a long time, I was even proud of this mindset. It was like an invisible whip, driving me to operate at high capacity for long hours. I was like a hamster on a wheel, constantly running, fueled by fear—fear of failure, fear of not achieving enough, fear of disappointing others, fear of not meeting the standards I had set for myself. This fear came with an undercurrent of anxiety that became the foundation of my work ethic.

But here’s the real problem with this mindset: it makes you a slave to external validation. You start measuring yourself by external metrics—company valuation, OKR completion rates, social media likes, views, and subscriptions. You lose sight of yourself.

And here’s the harsh truth: this fear-driven, anxiety-fueled mindset operates at a low energy frequency. Nikola Tesla once said, “If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency, and vibration.” Fear and anxiety are low-frequency emotions. They repel high-frequency outcomes like wealth, success, and happiness.

This is what I came to realize: the biggest difference between the 1% who succeed and the 99% who fail is their energy frequency. The good news? Energy frequency can be adjusted.

Below is how:

Step 1: Adopt an Experimental Mindset

To shift from a failure mindset to a winner mindset, you must first change your relationship with failure. Society, family, and systems condition us to fear failure, using it as a tool to control us. But failure isn’t the end—it’s an experiment.

When you approach life with an experimental mindset, everything becomes an opportunity for discovery. Parenting, entrepreneurship, learning, wealth accumulation—everything can be reframed as a daily experiment. And experiments don’t determine your value; they reveal new insights. With this perspective, it’s impossible to fail. Every experiment yields a result—whether it’s what works or what doesn’t.

Take Supercell, for example, one of the world’s most successful gaming companies. Their experimental culture has made them a leader in the industry, with a valuation of over $10 billion. When projects fail, they host funerals for them—not to shame failure but to celebrate the effort, learn from it, and encourage employees to keep experimenting. This approach ensures that failure becomes a stepping stone to success, not an obstacle. And their method has led to the creation of massively successful games like Clash of Clans and Clash Royale.

Step 2: Focus on Micro-Progress

This concept is entirely opposite to the mainstream advice you often hear. Many so-called gurus will tell you to 10x your growth, to set incredibly ambitious goals so that even if you fall short, you’ll still surpass most people. But the problem with this approach is that it often overwhelms you, leading to procrastination.

Procrastination is one of the most common issues people face—perhaps 99% of humanity suffers from it. Why? Because our human nature is greedy. We want to lose 10 pounds in a week, become fluent in a language overnight, or achieve financial freedom in a year. But this greed overwhelms us, and instead of taking action, we freeze. Even if progress happens, it’s rarely sustainable. You’ve seen it with people who lose weight, only to regain it and try again, repeating the cycle until they give up entirely.

The secret to winning every day lies in setting goals so small that they feel impossible to fail. When I started training for a 10K run, I initially set a goal of adding 400 meters daily. But I quickly felt overwhelmed and started procrastinating. So, I changed my approach. Instead of 400 meters, I added just 100 meters daily. It was such a small step that it felt effortless. Over time, these tiny increments added up. Today, I comfortably run 6.4 kilometers, and in a few weeks, I’ll hit 10K.

When you set growth goals that are small enough to feel achievable, you can win every single day. And when you win daily, progress becomes sustainable and joyful.

Step 3: Control What You Can

The failure mindset makes us obsess over things we can’t control: likes, views, subscriptions, investor feedback. But these metrics are external—they’re out of our hands.

What you can control is your effort, your consistency, and your quality. Focus on those, and you’ll regain a sense of empowerment. For me, this meant directing my energy into creating better content, improving my systems, and staying consistent. By doing this, external validation became feedback, not a judgment of my worth.

Step 4: Celebrate Small Wins

Most of us are conditioned to move from one goal to the next without pausing to celebrate. But celebration is essential for raising your energy frequency.

Every time I meet a small goal, I give myself recognition. Sometimes, I record a quick video just for myself, acknowledging my progress. This isn’t about material rewards; it’s about internal validation. When you celebrate yourself, you raise your energy frequency, which attracts even greater success.

Self-recognition is far more powerful than external validation. If you can’t celebrate yourself, no amount of external praise will ever feel enough.

Conclusion: Build a System Where You Can’t Fail

The 1% of successful entrepreneurs don’t avoid failure—they embrace it. They adopt an experimental mindset, focus on micro-progress, control what they can, and celebrate their wins. They’ve built systems where winning becomes inevitable.

99% of entrepreneurs fail. But you don’t have to. Redefine failure, take small steps, focus on what you can control, and celebrate every single day. Success isn’t just about the outcome—it’s about the process.

Design a system where you win every day, and you’ll already be part of the 1%. It’s not about avoiding failure; it’s about turning every step into a victory.

Are you ready to start?

Happy New Year, My Friends!

Yours,

Peggie Li