MARCUS WHITNEY’S FIGHT TO EMBRACE FAILURE

BY MARTY MACIASZEK NSGA DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS

Marcus Whitney was not afraid to spotlight one of his most vulnerable moments.

Whitney is a successful entrepreneur and the co-founder of Nashville’s Major League Soccer team. He started his Management Conference & Team Dealer Summit presentation, “There is No Innovation Without Failure,” with a video of him in a jiu-jitsu match. It was not a triumphant moment for him last summer.

“We forget discomfort is critical to advancing things,” Whitney said. “So, I lost.

It’s a journey of me doing something very, very uncomfortable, failing at it and what it’s like to learn something new at 46–47 years old.”

Fast forward to the end of his presentation and another video of Whitney participating in the predominantly ground-based martial art. This one had a triumphant ending with a world Masters’ title as a 13th-seed and Whitney said it was forged from his previous defeat.

“I remember how I felt I this moment, looking at him and knowing it was time to tap. Knowing he had me,”

Whitney said of having to accept the earlier defeat. “This was the death of me being scared to be on that mat and the birth of me who walked on that mat and died with honor. Had I not gone through that I don’t think this would have been possible. I literally credit that loss with this win because it’s the fundamental part of ‘The Hero’s Journey.’”

“The Hero’s Journey” was written by Joseph Campbell and Whitney shared parts of it with the audience. Whitney said “we all want to be heroes but we don’t want to experience death. No failure for me, thank you.”

Whitney focused on three areas in his presentation:

• Pray For Constraints and Clarity

• Cast a Dream Beyond Your Comfort

• Be Courageous and Classy

Pray For Constraints And Clarity

Whitney grew up in what he called a diverse utopia of friendships in Brooklyn, New York. He went to the University of Virginia but dropped out and spent nearly six years in Atlanta trying to support his wife and two kids as a waiter. His move to Nashville on Labor Day 2000 was a life-changer.

He followed a suggestion to visit Nashville’s Cummins Station where all the tech companies were located. Whitney said he applied to 20 and was rejected by 19. But the one that accepted started him on his journey to founding Jumpstart Health Investors and going from $1 million raised in 2015 to $120 million in capital through 2022.

“We’re not who we see ourselves to be in the future,” Whitney said. “We are who we need to be. I was lucky to be raised to be a good person who could navigate adversity and be friends with just about anybody I wanted to be friends with. The difficulties the world presents are often a blessing and it may force us to do things we find difficult and that may not be the most pleasurable things.”

Cast A Dream Beyond Your Comfort

In 2012, Nashville lost its soccer team when the Metros folded after more than 20 years. Whitney and a group of friends dreamed of bringing soccer back to the city and formed Nashville FC, which led to a succession of lower-tier franchises coming to town.

Nashville was initially 14th on the list of 14 potential cities for a Major League Soccer expansion team, according to Whitney.

MLS wound up selecting Nashville in December 2017 and the franchise began play in 2020. As of June 20 this season, Nashville SC ranked fourth of 29 teams in the league in average attendance at more than 28,000 per game.

“It happened in less than 10 years and it started from a tweet,” Whitney said. “You must cast a dream beyond your comfort level. If you don’t stretch for anything you can’t possibly achieve the unattainable.”

Be Courageous And Classy

Whitney was excited with how Jumpstart Health Investors was going in early 2020 as the first Black health-care venture fund in America. Then COVID hit in March 2020 and he said he was having meetings with President Trump and his administration on personal protective equipment (PPE).

Then came the death of George Floyd while he was in custody of the Minneapolis police in May 25. The moment led Whitney to write a letter to Nashville’s healthcare leaders and implored them to do something about systemic racism in the city’s healthcare industry.

Whitney said the most important line in the letter that went public was, “I’m calling you up. I’m not calling you out.” After a few hours of silence, he started getting texts and calls from people within the healthcare community. That led to an extension of what he was already doing with Jumpstart Nova, which has raised $55 million for investments in promising Black-led healthcare companies providing services and care for all Americans.

“I wanted to acknowledge the power they have in this moment to change the world,” Whitney said.

It was another moment where Whitney didn’t fear failure. He brought it all back to the initial jiu-jitsu loss and eventual triumph.

“You need to make friends with failure because it’s inevitable,” he said. “There will be the abyss and there will be the death. You cannot have the rebirth without death. You cannot have the innovation without failure.

“What were we taught in school? Never fail. Get a 4.0 (grade point average). How useful is that in life? You’re laughing because you know that’s not useful at all. If you’re not failing, you’re not doing anything hard.”