When Kim Perell joined The WIE Suite for her Masterclass, she offered more than entrepreneurial advice, she dismantled the myth that success is the result of flawless execution. A nine-time founder, prolific investor, and bestselling author, Kim built her fortune by turning missteps into leverage.

Here are five clear lessons from her candid conversation, buoyed by the personal stories behind them.

Start Before You Feel Ready

Kim’s first company began when her so-called dream job vanished overnight. At 23, laid off in the wake of the dot-com crash, she faced a choice: find another job or bet on herself. She asked her grandmother for a $10,000 loan, bought a one-way ticket to Hawaii, and launched her first business from her kitchen table.

“I wasn’t ready, but waiting would have cost me everything,” she said. Instead, she learned that action, not certainty, creates momentum. Her advice is non-negotiable: stop waiting for the perfect moment. It never arrives.

Refuse to Go It Alone

Determined to prove her critics wrong, Kim tried to shoulder every burden herself. It nearly ended her business before it began. Exhausted, she called a trusted advisor, who told her what she now repeats to every founder: no one succeeds alone.

She built what she calls her “people pillars”: mentors, family and friends who lift you higher, a capable team, and advisors who see blind spots you can’t. “Audit the people around you,” she urged. “If they don’t energize, encourage, or elevate you, spend less time with them.”

Redefine Failure

Kim learned early that while failure is inevitable, quitting is optional. From being passed over as a child for the “gifted” track, to losing her first job and firing close friends, each disappointment reinforced her resilience.

“People imagine success as a straight line. In reality, it’s a maze,” she said. Her father made failure part of dinner-table conversation, asking nightly, What’s the worst thing that happened today? It taught her to see setbacks as part of the process. Her bottom line: failure only becomes final when you stop moving forward.

Test Before You Leap

Kim invests in founders every day and she sees the same mistake on repeat. Too many pitch, too few prove. The question she would have any first-time founder ask themselves is: Will anyone pay for this? If the answer is no, it’s not a business – it’s a hobby.

For anyone nurturing a side hustle, her advice is practical: keep your day job until you see real demand and early revenue. “Give yourself a year,” she said. “Use the margins of your day – early mornings, late nights, weekends – to stress test your idea. By the end of that year, you’ll know if it’s viable.”

Trade Perfection for Progress

As a young founder, Kim admits perfectionism was her greatest obstacle. She learned to break through by adopting the Marines’ 70% rule: act when you’re 70% certain and trust yourself to adjust as you go.

“Perfection is procrastination in disguise,” she said. “You won’t get it exactly right, but you will get further than those who never start.”

Kim’s talk was a practical framework for transforming risk, mistakes, and setbacks into strategic advantage.

Her forthcoming book, Mistakes That Made Me a Millionaire, expands on this simple truth: success doesn’t happen despite your mistakes. It happens because of them.