Eleven Years, Six Failures, One Breakthrough: A Moment with Reebok Founder Joe Foster

by Paul  Kirch
I had the rare privilege of sitting in a small coffee talk session with Joe Foster, the founder of Reebok. It was an intimate setting, the kind where conversations feel less like interviews and more like shared reflections between people who deeply respect the entrepreneurial journey.

When it was my turn to speak, I found myself thinking about the narrative we often hear surrounding success. The public sees the breakthrough. The headlines. The moment a company becomes a household name. What we don’t see is the grind, the uncertainty, and the long stretch of time when nothing seems to be working.

So I asked him a question that lives in the heart of every entrepreneur.

I shared how entrepreneurship is often presented as a path to freedom, wealth, and flexibility. Yet behind that promise are years of struggle. We hear about overnight success stories, only to discover later that those “overnight” wins took a decade or more. I mentioned examples like John Paul DeJoria living out of his car while trying to launch Paul Mitchell. It feels, at times, like there’s almost a rite of passage where failure is part of the process.

Then I asked:

Were there moments in his career that felt like make-or-break points? Times when it could have gone one way or another. Times when he faced real hurdles, took major risks, or wondered if things were ever going to work.

His response was immediate and honest.

He said you simply cannot build a company like Reebok without experiencing failures. Not one or two. Many.

He talked about the uncertainty. The moments of doubt. The constant questioning of whether decisions were right. But what stood out most was his perspective on mistakes. He explained that everything you try is “right” in its own way. Sometimes it just turns out that something else works better. And often, you only learn that the hard way.

Then he shared a story that reframed what persistence really looks like.

It took him eleven years to break into the American market.

Eleven.

His first attempt was in 1968, traveling to a sporting goods trade show in Chicago. He knew the running movement was growing in the United States and believed Reebok could be part of it. But getting in wasn’t easy. There were barriers everywhere. They weren’t manufacturing in America. Importing was complicated. Distributors were hesitant. The infrastructure wasn’t there.

He tried again and again.

Six different attempts. Six failures.

At one point, he worked with a partner for three years, pushing, negotiating, trying to get their product across the line. It didn’t work. There were many reasons, but the result was the same. No breakthrough.

Still, he kept going.

Slowly, lesson by lesson, they figured it out. Eventually, they found their way in. Their running shoes began to take hold. And over time, they became part of the American sporting goods landscape.

Listening to him, I realized something important.

Most people see success as a moment. Entrepreneurs experience it as a timeline.

And that timeline is long.

My question came from a place many of us know well. That moment when things feel stuck. When progress is slow. When doubt creeps in. When you wonder if this is just one more failure in a series of them.

His answer reframed those moments.

He didn’t treat failure like a verdict. He treated it like data.

Each failed attempt to enter the U.S. market wasn’t a signal to stop. It was information. Each obstacle clarified what wasn’t working. Each delay sharpened the path forward.

Six failures over eleven years would discourage most people. For him, it was simply the cost of entry into something bigger.

There’s a deeper lesson in that exchange.

Entrepreneurs often think they’re behind when things take longer than expected. But what if the timeline is the process? What if the years of struggle are not detours, but the training ground?

We tend to measure success by the breakthrough moment. The funding round. The expansion. The recognition. But the real story is built in the quiet years when no one is watching.

Joe Foster didn’t enter the American market in a single bold move. He earned his way in through persistence, adaptation, and resilience. Over and over again.

And maybe that’s the most powerful takeaway.

The hurdles aren’t signs you’re failing. They’re signs you’re in the middle of building something real.

Because sometimes the difference between the story that fades and the one that changes an industry is simply this:

The willingness to try a seventh time after failing six.

The greatest lessons in life are not from our victories, but from the failures that led to them. Joe shared some great insights into his journey that could have had a much darker ending. Never give up if you believe in your mission… That’s a hard concept when the heat is on, but in retrospect it may just be the point where your success could have been the end of the road.

Thank you to Joe Foster and One Golden Nugget for allowing me to part of this great experience.

Paul Kirch is the founder of BOSS Academy, a success platform and community for entrepreneurial leaders. He’s also the creator of Askology Method, the sales method that focuses uses upon trust building and deeper engagement through the power of questions.