Depends on if you are talking about "life in general" or "in the eLiquid game."
Hands down my worst failure - my 1st marriage - hard to levy blame for any of that after a decade of spending your life with someone, after a while, whoever started it doesn't really matter. LOL
Despite the fact that I am passionate about history, and I consider myself to be a great teacher - I was a miserable failure at teaching High School History... I'm a really cerebral dude, and super-intelligent... I've never seen so many "blank stares" in my life. I was a young buck though, early 20s, teaching kids not 5 years younger than me... nothing but respect for teachers as a result.
In the eLiquid game...
One of my first efforts was a product called "Nicoticket will make you famous." The concept - totally custom 50ml bottles. You purchase 100ml for $29.99 - I will bring in ANY FLAVORING YOU WANT to make it happen. I'd say I tossed a ton of bad bottles, but... no one bought one. No kidding.
Bare-naked Blueberry... despite a full disclosure that it was a lighter flavor profile, it was almost universally a disappointment -
reviews were not good.
Altered State... probably the worst liquid I have ever made. Yes, AS has it's fans... Experimented with coloring each bottle a different color just to mess with people, which was kinda fun, but I think it hurt the overall brand in terms of the "consistency" factor. Ironically enough I still get requests for it - proves taste is subjective.
The old blunt drip tips for the bottles (the old school remembers these). Leaks, leaks, leaks. OMG, it was miserable.
Things I miss...
Personally signing every invoice - I used to write some fun stuff on em. LMAO I still get to live vicariously though the fellas when they come in and show me some of the "dirty limerick" requests.
Abi coloring on the Kraft packages.
Hardest transitions:
Killing custom bottles... at some point someone, I forget who it was, sent me an email telling me "sooner or later you're going to figure out that you can't be everything to everyone. Do what you do, do it the best you can - put your best foot forward on every bottle and do it with no apologies." Variable PG/VG ratios, flavor shots, menthol, "flavor fusion" (remember that?) - it was fun, and really helped me learn how to mix - but it should have been gone 2-3-4 months before I got the confidence to kill it.
Trimming the line-up because of lack of space... if you think people whine about me pulling a SR now, dial back 12 months or so when I pulled flavors people expected to be around indefinitely... and there are some freakin' awesome flavors in there (Orange-Mango Tango, Strawberry Symphony, Romantic Raspberry, Rainier Cherry).
Trusting people with my baby... I feel fortunate to have people I trust (Katy, Nick, Beau, Josh, Nolan) taking care of you folks. It was inevitable that I had to delegate some of the relationship portion of the business... it was the part I held onto the longest. Still haven't really ceded all of that, obviously, I am as active on the forums as I ever have been (due in large part to the fact that I actually ENJOY "working" the forum).
This upcoming transition, which I have disclosed in bits and pieces... new logo, new labels, new bottles... soon to be a new focus on wholesale...
