An international movement encouraging professionals to speak openly and honestly about their failures is celebrating its third year in Montreal on Tuesday with a storytelling and networking event featuring entertainment empresario Andy Nulman.
Fuckup Nights (FUN) and the Failure Institute hold monthly events in 318 cities worldwide where participants share tales of their major fuckups and, more importantly, what they learned following the experiences. It all began in Mexico City in 2014, when a group of young professionals began commiserating about their failures, quickly realizing that everyone had at least one major fuckup story.
WHAT: Fuckup Nights 3rd Anniversary feat. Andy Nulman
WHEN: Tuesday, November 12, 2019 at 6 PM – 9 PM
WHERE: Shopify – 490 Rue de la Gauchetière Ouest
Facebook Event Page | Tickets via Eventbrite
Montreal chapter co-founder Natalie Riviere, a digital marketing specialist and head of Commetta Communications, believes modern entrepreneurs must be willing to show a more transparent, vulnerable side, and talking about one’s failures publicly does not hold the stigma it once did.
“When we learn to walk, we fall. Change is human nature, and business is human in nature,” Riviere said. “Marketing data tells us the most effective content is authentic. Audiences want to connect with businesses and be a part of their story. More and more, they can tell fake news from the truth. Being honest is good business!”
Andy Nulman, the former president of Just for Laughs, a mobile gaming pioneer and co-creator of the Play the Future predictive gaming app, will reveal some of his biggest career mistakes as the FUN takes over another local HQ for the monthly event, that of e-commerce giant Shopify.
“Here’s why discussing your fuckups in public is important,” Nulman said, “you realize that you are not alone, and that everyone screws up… although yours still is the worst of the bunch!”
Riviere, who is also a certified yoga instructor, believes these events also work in favour of another phenomenon of the modern workplace: mindfulness.
“The research around failure points to defining it as a state of mind, and that the antidote is to adopt a growth mindset,” Riviere added. “Watching the patterns of business, you see an inevitable rise and fall, emotions evoked, and opportunities for learning and development after each challenge… the journey builds awareness, resilience, adaptability and perseverance — essential ingredients to becoming an effective leader. ”
During the last federal election, Rivere released a meditation track in collaboration with TNKR Media geared toward content-creators. You can play or download the track here.
About Fuckup Nights
Fuckup Nights is a global movement and event series that shares stories of professional failure. Each month, in networking events across the globe, three people share their own professional fuckups to learn from them in order to drive entrepreneurship and innovation in their communities.
