Some of the wealthiest businessmen in the world went bankrupt 4 or 5 times in their life before getting it right. Going bankrupt means that your liabilities exceeds your assets and by definition you owed money that you could not repay. Having debt and not being able to pay someone does not automatically mean you are a scammer or a bad person as it depends on the circumstances - it could but not necessarily.

However, if it was me and I subsequently achieved success I would go back to the people I owned money previously and repay them with interest.