The Success of Failure

It is obvious but it’s rarely pointed out: to succeed one must fail, a lot. How many times has Shaun White fallen on his way to best in the world?

I had the opportunity to hear Seth Godin speak in Salt Lake last month. Seth has one of the most interesting blogs and he publishes something great every single day. He said he does it by writing 10 to 20 posts for every one that is published.

Instead of this approach we’re taught to believe that failure is not an option. When in fact failure is the only option, if you want to succeed. If you’re not pushing yourself beyond your current capabilities and current way of doing things then you probably won’t fail and you also won’t reach your potential. It certainly takes failure to lead, learn, and innovate.

Real world examples are all over the place, Jordan being cut from his high school varsity team, Steve Jobs being ousted from Apple, almost all successful business owners didn’t make it on their first try.

I just saw this quote tonight: “The core skill of innovators is error recovery not failure avoidance.” –Randy Nelson, Pixar University

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