Go read Pauls essays. He covers aspects like this from his own experiences and those of groups he's funded.
Generally the theme is "Its better to have tried and failed than to have never tried at all". Many employers (at good companies at least) will see someone who attempted to start a company as a person with good leadership skills and a strong work ethic. If anything this could help you get a job. Thats of course assuming you didnt do something stupid like drop out of school first.
Also, you can learn much through a failure. Look at the Justin.tv guys. They knew what it took to be successful the second time around by learning from their mistakes with kiko. Now they are totally rocking it.
