Kwame Taylor-Hayford on learning from mistakes and missteps

Ad Age is marking Black History Month 2023 with our third-annual Honoring Black Creative Excellence package. (Read the introduction here.) Today, Kin Co-Founder Kwame Taylor-Hayford—our second guest editor of the month—offers his thoughts about learning from failure. (Visit our Honoring Creative Excellence hub each weekday for a new essay from another notable Black creative.)

As I considered what to share for this article, I realized that I, like many of my peers, have presented my career mostly as a rapid succession of positive, exciting moments—highlights intended to raise my profile and also motivate other creatives in the industry.

Truth be told, between these positive highlights, I’ve made many mistakes and missteps, but have learned more than a few valuable lessons over close to 20 years.

In 2009, I worked on JC Penney’s “Beware of the Doghouse,” a Valentine’s Day campaign encouraging men to buy their jewelry. I was responsible for extending the idea to digital and social platforms, amplifying its viral effect. Despite my best efforts, that part of the campaign was a complete disaster. We were one of the first projects to use the Facebook Connect API, which had just launched and was very buggy. The users’ experience on the site was very poor, disappointing our clients and ultimately costing the agency a six-figure amount in fees.

I remember being called into a meeting with the CCO and CFO to discuss the project, and I was 100% convinced I’d be fired. I instead learned what great, empathetic leadership looks like. They listened to my side of the story, acknowledged the inherent risks in being so innovative, and ultimately believed in me when I was having a difficult time believing in myself. I had tried so hard and completely failed, but luckily I had the right support to remain employed, embrace the lessons and move past that failure.

In 2012, I took a leap of faith and started a creative collective called smallGIANTS. I was enthusiastic about pursuing an entrepreneurial adventure. Despite securing some fantastic projects, including Uniqlo Recipe—a food, cooking and music app developed in close collaboration with Ko Tanaka, a creative director I respected deeply—I encountered many challenges. The Uniqlo Recipe app was very successful, downloaded in more than a dozen countries and selected as one of the best apps of 2013 by Apple, but my company was a failure. I had to shut it down after two years because I was more than $50,000 in debt from investing way too much to produce projects.

I was in my 20s and simply didn’t know what I didn’t know. It was clear I needed to learn more about how to build a team, nurture a culture, deliver projects efficiently and manage a P&L. The next few years turned out to be an important, formative period that allowed me to learn and grow into a well-rounded creative executive.

I feel very fortunate that from these failures, and many more, I’ve been able to gain the experience, perspective and confidence to push forward and achieve with more focus and resolve.

Starting Kin in 2019 with my incredible co-founder Sophie Ozoux, we have built our world-class team of collaborators, nurturing an eclectic culture while working with Mailchimp, Delta Air Lines and Ben & Jerry’s to help create social change through culture. The last three years have been full of incredible challenges, wonderful and not-so-wonderful experiences. I’m still making lots of mistakes and learning many lessons. I’m very grateful for my past, which has put in context the highs and lows essential to a career that endures.

I hope these stories from my journey so far join a larger dialogue about the reality of being in this industry, and perhaps help anyone experiencing some missteps right now to feel a little less alone. They’re part of the journey … the pain will pass … the lessons will endure and you’ll have the wisdom and gray hairs (in some cases, no hair) to persevere.