MIT: Independent Activities Period: IAP

IAP 2016



FAILURE -- AN ESSENTIAL INGREDIENT TO BEING SUCCESSFUL IN SCHOOL, SCIENCE, AND STARTUPS

Amir Nashat ScD '02, Managing Partner, Polaris Partners

Jan/12 Tue 06:00PM-07:00PM 32-141

Enrollment: Unlimited: Advance sign-up required

Most MIT students have rarely, if ever, tasted intellectual failure before arriving on campus.  MIT, for good reason, tries hard to soften the blow that every freshman goes through of suddenly being surrounded by the best students in the world and learning how to cope with failure.  

This class addresses a fundamental paradox, if failure is so bad, why do virtually all major scientific discoveries and most successful startups begin with failure?  We will review both well-known and not-so-well-known examples where failure was the prerequisite for success, with the aim of crafting a set of personalized rules that can help us have fun, succeed and make a big impact at MIT and in our lives after graduation.

Amir Nashat, ScD. Course 10, '02. Educated as an engineer at Berkeley and MIT, Amir has spent his time since school helping entrepreneurs start great companies, and, along the way, starting a few himself.  Amir is a managing partner at Polaris Partners, a leading venture capital firm with offices in Boston, San Francisco and Dublin.  He has spent most of his career working in biotechnology, being fortunate to meet great entrepreneurs and have the opportunity to invest in a number of important companies and medicines that can make a huge impact on patients' lives.  Amir has also led the startup phase of three MIT-based startups (Living Proof, Pervasis and Sun Catalytix), ranging from  personal care to medicine to energy fields.

Register today!

Sponsor(s): Alumni Association
Contact: Elena Byrne, W98-206C, 617 252-1143, EBYRNE@MIT.EDU