Heh. The lesson I take: Well, then I'd better try this a bunch of times. Which means I need to make the tries cheap and quick enough.

or so it would seem. Don't rule out chasing an idea for years before you find it's successful. AirBnB, Pinterest, Craigslist etc etc

“Most successful men have not achieved their distinction by having some new talent or opportunity presented to them. They have developed the opportunity that was at hand.”

— Bruce Barton

Don't forget to add the even more ambitious Elon Musk into your list... SpaceX and Tesla.

If its still all about perspective, might we say those 5% are still yet to fail.

Given a long enough timeline even currently successful companies can become future failures.

Edit:By this I mean even successful companies can eventually lose out to competition when they lose their edge. Only the Paranoid Survive - Andy Grove.