Have I failed before? Yes.
Have I failed many times? Yes.

Let me share some with you - without sparing much details causes of my failures.

1. My greatest failures are due to lost opportunities. I can go on and on listing the great opportunities I have let slip by. Once a man came from Canada and when we were discussing, he said "If you were doing all these stuff you mentioned, you should not be here" and he had not even heard much of what I had been involved with.

2. No partnership. Some opportunities can not just be run alone. Any good entrepreneur must learn to pursue whatever would make their vision a reality. Partnerships with strategic individuals could sometimes mean getting off or remaining static. 50% of N50m is better than 100% of 2.5m!

3. No concerted action. Just like #2, there is only so much you can do by your own efforts. Some business ideas require a gamut of skills and inputs to real take off well. Most times I try to do everything. And end up failing.

4. Going big. Most people would love to grow their businesses. A lot of businesses die when owners attempted to grow big. In my case I was setting up satellite locations and this ended up affecting the business.

5. Lack of focus. Some of my failure was due to not letting some ideas be. Rejecting some moves may be much more profitable than taking them.

6. Naira. I have done business when Naira was 80 to the $. Did it when it was 115. When it became 145 to the $, I had to bow out. I was dealing US and at those levels, it was impossible to continue the business.

Quantifying what could have been is hard, the value of losses in term of time is over 10 years effort. In terms of cash, several millions.
Of my 6 reasons for failing, 5 had to do with me (internal factors). But I am grateful to God I could still do something again. Not easy, but that doesn't matter.