I don't have a good failure story. I'm a semi-regular reader of https://www.amazon.com/Founders-Work-Stories-Startups-Early/...) 5 years after it got published. Not sure if a list of company names on the cover would work for failures.
This is discussed at length in the first chapter of Founders at Work. The chapter is written by Max Levchin (co-founder of PayPal) and discusses his bitter feud with Elon Musk over Musk's desire to convert systems over to Windows. Interestingly Musk is never mentioned by name.
My inspiration is Steve Wozniak. To this day, I try to write software with the same thinking he used when he built the Apple II. Get a clear picture of what you want, keep it as simple as possible, stand on the shoulders of giants but build your own tools when you have to, and keep all the details in your head. (This last one has made a huge difference in my work.)
You have no excuse not to read about this because Chapter 3 of Jessica Livingston's "Founders at Work" is one of the best treatments of Woz and is on line here:
Hence also why most people don't realize that Paypal was the side effect of a company that originally was created to handle fraud. Source: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1430210788/
To take this to the next step, this is also why I believe Paypal is one of the very few companies that has been able to scale online payments. I'd love to see anyone challenge their ability to balance customer service with fraud prevention at scale.
https://www.amazon.com/Founders-Work-Stories-Startups-Early/...
- Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days by Jessica Livingston. [2]
[1] http://www.amazon.com/Four-Steps-Epiphany-Steven-Blank/dp/09...
[2] http://www.amazon.com/Founders-Work-Stories-Startups-Problem...
You have no excuse not to read about this because Chapter 3 of Jessica Livingston's "Founders at Work" is one of the best treatments of Woz and is on line here:
http://www.foundersatwork.com/steve-wozniak.html
Then check out
"IWoz"
http://www.amazon.com/iWoz-Computer-Invented-Personal-Co-Fou...
"Founders at Work"
http://www.amazon.com/Founders-Work-Stories-Startups-Problem...
To take this to the next step, this is also why I believe Paypal is one of the very few companies that has been able to scale online payments. I'd love to see anyone challenge their ability to balance customer service with fraud prevention at scale.