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According to research cited in 37 Signals' Rework entrepreneurs that have failed previously are no more likely to succeed again than first-time entrepreneurs.

I think far too much business and start-up advice is nothing more than anecdotes and personal experience, none of it backed by hard numbers. (Rework is no exception.) Are there any books out there where people did actual research to back up their advice?

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Here's a Harvard Business School research paper that suggests that in certain kinds of venture-backed startups, those who have failed before have a slightly higher rate of success.

http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/6045.html

It's like surfing. You have to paddle like hell to get to where the wave is going to be, then be standing on the board at just the right time. Once you've missed a few waves, you have a better idea of the timing.

There's a lot of things that have to line up to make a startup successful: vision, market, funding, and talent. Believe it or not, the market and the funding are likely to be more forgiving of previous failure than the talent.

I like that.

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