Failure Club

What is Failure Club at Mothership HackerMoms

Failure Club is the most popular offering at Mothership HackerMoms because it represents community, support, collaboration and the messiness that goes with pursuing our own passions while also being a parent. We gather weekly to embrace failure and move through personal goals surrounded by kickass people who support, inspire, witness, motivate and help us show up even when we fail. For many of us, our Failure Club community and experiences profoundly change every aspect of our lives.

Failure Club stretches and evolves depending on who joins.

Craving Community? We’re Hybrid!

Most Failure Clubs take place in person at our space on Adeline Street AND on Zoom.

If you are ready to join us, fill out the application in a Google form. 

In the last several years, we’ve been expanding our offerings. Because of the pandemic and the specific individuals who have participated, our Wednesdays and Saturdays at 10am offer the more classic version that is steeped in emotional support when people can bring ANY KIND OF PROJECT and sometimes people don’t necessarily have formal 12-week goals.

Failure Clubs sometimes converge on a specific theme or type of people. 

  • On Mondays at 7pm, we have a group for moms who are starting businesses, nonprofits, websites

We wish you the courage to fail, recover and start again.

How it works

We commit to meeting the same time each week for a 12-week series of Failure Club. At various times of the year, there are shorter series and people who choose to meet in between the official series dates.

  • You choose one project with a measurable outcome (or something more amorphous if that’s what you’re going for).
  • We start with one minute of silence to gather ourselves to be fully present for ourselves and for each other.
  • Each person has five to seven uninterrupted minutes to update the group (depending on group size and time constraints). You share progress, roadblocks, next steps, and tell the group what feedback is most helpful. You can identify what kind of feedback you want, whether that’s getting cheerleading, advice, recommendations, referrals or general comments.
  • We take five minutes to provide feedback in the form of cheerleading, advice, recommendations, referrals or general comments.

We each try to fail at it in a big way (with our kids in tow). We become each other’s cheerleaders, reality checks, and shoulders to cry on, because we must really, really try, and for that we depend on our tribe to sustain us. We share our personal networks of contacts, wisdom, and resources. We adopt design thinking: to fail early and often, to test what works and observe what happens (and what we feel).

We create a rhythm in weekly sprints.

Choosing your project

Personal growth is a constant theme, and we center each round of Failure Club on one project or concept. While some of us are tackling our life’s dreams, some of us have projects that are less about risks and more reflective of the stages of our lives and of our kids. The examples below are not meant to limit your imagination. Big projects can span multiple rounds of Failure Club, and your “project” will be a three-month milestone.

We find that “simple” or manageable projects are often profoundly meaningful and difficult to achieve. Because we are our authentic selves when we come to Failure Club, we bring our fears, our health, our families, our careers into the discussion and a 12-week goal may be a regular part of your life.

We embrace all sorts of projects

  • Revel in art
  • Discover what’s important to me
  • Exercise three times a week
  • Explore new careers, hobbies, values
  • Start a regular meditation practice
  • Remodel a home
  • Move cross country
  • Hack parenthood
  • Figure out the next step
  • Discover new companies in your field
  • Re-organize closets

Early in the history of Failure Club, we encouraged people to choose risky projects that were seemingly impossible and terrifying. These kinds of giant high-risk projects are always welcome. 

  • Change careers
  • Write a book
  • Make art
  • Produce a film
  • Start a business
  • Learn a new field
  • Invent products

Join Failure Club During These Days and Times

While there are official 12-week series, we occasionally allow people to join in the middle. If you would like to sit in for one day, let us know.

Times Are Based on California

  • Mondays 7pm for new businesses, nonprofits, websites
  • Wednesdays 10am
  • Thursdays 3pm
  • Saturdays 10am

Upcoming Dates

Our calendar is loosely aligned to the school year and may change. Dates will be finalized during the first session of each series.

On Mondays at 7pm, for new businesses, nonprofits, websites

  • Sept 23, 2024 to Dec 16, 2024 (12 weeks with no meeting Nov 25)
  • January 20, 2025 to April 14, 2025 (12 weeks with no meeting March 31)
  • April 21, 2025 to July 7, 2025 (12 weeks)
  • July 14, 2025 to Sept 1, 2025 (Mini 8-week series)

On Wednesdays

  • Sept 25, 2024 to Dec 18, 2024 (12 weeks with no meeting Nov 27)
  • Jan 22, 2025 to April 16, 2025 (12 weeks with no meeting April 2)
  • April 23, 2025 to July 9, 2025 (12 weeks)
  • July 16, 2025 to Sept 3, 2025 (Mini 8-week series)

On Thursdays

  • Sept 26, 2024 to Dec 19, 2024 (12 weeks with no meeting Nov 28)
  • Jan 23, 2025 to April 17, 2025 (12 weeks with no meeting April 2)
  • April 24, 2025 to July 10, 2025 (12 weeks)
  • July 17, 2025 to Sept 4, 2025 (Mini 8-week series)
  •  

On Saturdays

  • Sept 28, 2024 to Dec 21, 2024 (12 weeks with a break on Nov. 30)
  • Jan 25, 2025 to April 19, 2025 (12 weeks with no meeting March 29)
  • April 13, 2025 to June 29, 2025 (12 weeks)
  • July 19, 2025 to Sept 6, 2025 (Mini 8-week series)

Cost

Failure Club is included in the Mothership HackerMom membership, which requires an application process.

  • $275 for 12-week series if paid in advance
  • Email if interested in a sliding scale

JOIN FAILURE CLUB

If interested, open the Google form on a new screen to sign up. Or use the window below.

 

How to be an excellent Failure Club participant

Over the years, we have developed a supportive tone that we want to preserve. Together, we create a safe, respectful space. Being vulnerable, daring and authentic happens when people are kind.

  • Please come on time and stay for the length of the meeting.
  • Everything shared in this group should be considered private information. By entering into this group, you agree to protect the privacy of your fellow group members.
  • We aim for a supportive, affirming tone.
  • We prefer asking gentle questions to help people think through their own perspective.
  • Speak to everyone as if they are a friend.
  • We refrain from solving people’s problems or lecturing.
  • We challenge each other and push hard when that’s what is asked for.
  • No interrupting.
  • Pay attention to what people are saying. This includes learning their pronouns and reflecting the terms people use to refer to themselves. To illustrate this, if someone calls themselves physically challenged or mixed race, we don’t say handicapped or biracial.
  • You’re invited to use the Zoom chat for asides, helpful reactions and quoting someone to help document something really important that was said. If you feel inclined to interrupt or don’t get a chance to talk, put your comments in the chat.

History and inspiration of Failure Club

There are Failure Clubs all over the world. We started Failure Club seeing that women have a fearful relationship to failure and perfectionism that begins in childhood. However, as creatives and lifelong learners, we know that failure is a part of the creative process. Failing is good practice. We want to model that for our kids. As we make tangible these creative dreams and demons, we exit our comfort zones and enter the dangerous territory of risk and fear. Life begins at the end of our comfort zone.

Especially early on, we took risks and encouraged people to choose projects that were seemingly impossible, terrifying and passion projects.

In 2012, our Failure Club was inspired and modeled by those shown in director Morgan Spurlock’s online video series.

“From the outset, failure is not only a highly probable outcome, it is the desired outcome. Only through embracing the reality of failure can its societal stigmas be stripped away and replaced with an inspirational alternative. The Failure Club process will rewire you to look at ‘failure’ as acceptable and even fun. It is only then that one discovers that most of life’s limitations are arbitrary, self-imposed, and based on fear. And when we overcome that fear, we blow away our self-inflicted limits, and we will each achieve results that appear miraculous.”