At Failcamp, mistakes were OK. Admitting them was even better. As one participant said by means of introduction, "I fail on a regular basis, and I thought this would be a good spot for me. I mean, I failed five times in that sentence."

It's OK because out of failure can come valuable lessons, ones that can lead to future success. That's the message Failcamp organizers Alex Hillman and Amy Hoy wanted to get across to the 20 people who met in Old City last month to share stories of their setbacks.

The idea for the gathering stemmed from similar ones on the West Coast, Hillman said. There, he said, it seems most acceptable to fail at something like a start-up business.

"Most entrepreneurs fail time and time again before they hit it big, and truth be told, there's a lot more to learn from failure than success," Hillman said. "Most success is a combination of luck, perseverance, and a whole lot of previous failure."

Hillman, 24, knows about the risk involved with new businesses: He is also one of the brains behind Independents Hall, a year-old "coworking" site open for rent to those who work from home.

The Failcamp group started the morning by writing down past failures, using a list that included "personal," "technical," "spiritual" and "business" for inspiration. Hillman and Hoy read some of them aloud: One person had been conned out of $20,000. Another felt bad for listening to an ex-spouse and not going to graduate school. Yet another made a computer mistake that almost cost her company millions of dollars.

Then the group, and the admitted error-maker, discussed what lessons could be garnered from the incidents: Be careful who you trust, be it with your money or your future. Check, check and triple-check your work.

Hoy, who helped lead the daylong program, had her own failure story: She once completed two months of work and did not get paid, leaving her close to being evicted from her apartment. Stressed, she ended up ill.

She learned two things. No. 1: Contracts are important. No. 2: "As bad as it got, and it got really bad, I could recover. Now I'm not afraid to fail. You can take all my money, evict me, and I know I'll climb back out. It's weird. People are always taught about success. People rarely talk about failure," said Hoy, 24, of Baltimore.

Linda Mills, 57, of Havertown said she came to Failcamp because "I love the idea of not being afraid to fail."

"You can wallow in it. You can accept it as your fate to fail," said Mills, who is employed in the hospital field. "But everybody here got up and came here so they already have the right perspective."