When his restaurant group went into liquidation, the Crackbird owner left behind unpaid creditors and more than 100 staff out of a job. Now, seven years on, he’s using the lessons he learned to advise hospitality business owners. Here, he talks about the mistakes he made, the ‘golden goose’ eatery he wishes he still had and the gloom and boom of the industry today
Joe Macken with his dog, Fennell. Photo: Frank McGrath
It surely wasn’t Samuel Beckett who first recognised the value of failure, but his “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better” quote – taken from his 1983 novella Worstward Ho – is the one trotted out most often. Elizabeth Day’s podcast, How To Fail, delves into the things that haven’t gone right with celebrity guests big enough to admit their mistakes. And in some countries, notably the US, failure in business is seen as an essential step on the road; there are few successful entrepreneurs who don’t have at least one failure on their record.
When Joe Macken’s restaurant group went into liquidation a couple of weeks before Christmas in 2018, he left behind him a slew of unpaid creditors and more than 100 staff out of a job.