A host of celebrity tech executives, including the founders of Twitter, Pinterest, Evernote and Android, converged in Tokyo this week, invited as part of an ambitious effort to modernize Japan‘s economy through entrepreneurship.

Their advice? Stay upbeat, because it’s not going to be easy.

“Don’t be afraid of failure, because usually that is the best learning experience,” said Niklas Zennstrom, who founded failed file-sharing service Kazaa before launching the Skype platform.

Zennstrom and other attendees mingled with Japanese business leaders and top politicians, then gave advice to thousands of attendees at a conference in central Tokyo on Tuesday. Many shared early tales of woe at their creations, including Google executive Andy Rubin, who first founded Android as an operating system for digital cameras.

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