A few months back we took our kids to a used bookstore and let them each pick out something new to read. As kids will do, they pulled out book after book with the funniest titles and brightest cover art. Of course my son found the one book with the word “poop” in the title. He was committed to having that be his book, and we were pretty amused.

At home that night we cracked the spine on Everyone Poops. Its a funny little read which details a common trait among all animals regardless of how fierce, regal, tame or tiny- they all poop. Of course having poop on every page sends the kids giggling at every turn. But the book has a cleverly disguised theme- there are experiences that all animals share.

I was reminded of this yesterday as I was reading about the sale of Jumo’s assets to Good.

Born with an impecable pedigree and an ambitious agenda, Jumo came preloaded with a set of expectations for world changing greatness. But it failed:

Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes has struggled with his ambitious solo start-up, the social network for activism Jumo, ever since its bumpy launch. Waning traffic and disinterested users were making it obvious that the site wasnot going to catch on, despite multiple redesigns; a tough pill to swallow for the wunderkind whose second act after Facebook, online strategy at the Obama presidential campaign, was another huge success story.

Personally, I’ve never used Jumo, but I’ve heard wonderful things about Chris and seen first hand the impact his work at Facebook and with the election have had on our collective society. His track record is nothing short of stunning. But he failed to turn Jumo into the disruptive tool for change he’d hoped to create at the outset. 

My point isn’t to kick sand in his face, but to thank him for the reminder that everyone, no matter how smart, pedigreed, networked or determined, fails. What makes Chris’ failure that much more impactful for me is that he took a risk he didn’t really have to take. He could have easily jumped to a cushy gig at any number places and ridden his reputation for the rest of his career.

In a profile of Stewart Butterfield, cofounder of Flickr, he described what it’s like for someone who has had tremendous success to build something new:

So why does Butterfield confess to living in “perpetual fear” these days? The truth is Butterfield is under enormous pressure. Expectations for Glitch, which Butterfield describes as a “shared, perpetual game with its own ecology,” are exceedingly high, both because of Butterfield’s personal brand and its ephemeral launch date.

That perpetual fear Stewart talks about is the reason I admire people like he and Chris so much. They know what’s a stake for their reputation if they fail, but they try and do bold and ambitious things anyway. This is a shared trait among the most high profile titans in tech. All share a history of having their personal projects fail. From Steve Jobs and his Newton, to Larry Ellison’s NC to Bill Gates and his SPOT project they’ve all failed. So have you. And so have I.

Whether you’re the tiniest fish in the sea or an elephant in the savannas, everyone poops. And whether you’re just starting your first company or a cofounder of Facebook, everyone fails. Its what we learn and how we recover from our failures that will set us apart from everyone else.