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I once had a teacher in 9th grade have us write down some principles for successful living. “Test Fast, Fail Fast” I scribbled down on the back of an assignment. “Wasn’t the point of life not to fail,” I thought to myself. Like a good student though, I folded the list up and stuck it in my wallet. I still have the list in my wallet today. Over the years I have come back to the list and have begun to realize the genius in my teacher’s words, specifically his insight on failure.
You see, what my teacher was getting at was a lifestyle of trying new things without fear of failure. A constant iteration of testing, failing, learning, testing, failing, learning; and all of this very quickly. Simply put, much more is learned from trying and failing then could ever be discovered solely by planning beforehand. And if you walk out this process quickly, you arrive at a success much faster and armed with more wisdom and insight than you ever could by standing on the sidelines analyzing the “fail-free” route.
The American entrepreneurial community has caught on to this idea more than anyone, viewing failure as a badge of honor rather than a scarlet letter. I have been told that some venture capitalists refuse to fund a business proposal put forth by someone who hasn’t previously failed in at least one or two other start-up efforts. Why? The experience of failure brings with it so many side-benefits that the person who has failed is actually better equipped than someone who has never tried before.
Two other people have recently peaked my interest in failure: Brad Feld and J.K. Rowling. Feld is one of the entrepreneurs I made reference to above that has been taking a deeper look at failure on his blog, Feld Thoughts. Check out his posts on failure here.
J.K. Rowling recently gave the graduation address to the class of 2008 at Harvard. She talked about the fringe benefits of failure as well as the importance of imagination. Watch the video of her brilliant speech here. Here is one of my favorite excerpts:
You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all - in which case, you fail by default.
Over the next few months I plan on making a study of failure and sharing what I discover with all of you. I want to know how we benefit from failure and why we fear it so much as well as how to overcome that fear.
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Comments
06.17.08
"The experience of failure brings with it so many side-benefits that the person who has failed is actually better equipped than someone who has never tried before."
Does this apply to police, emergency medicine, combat or other areas that have lives on the line? Do such failures have any side benefits when they end up killing people? I think not. I think learning from failure at the expense the lives of others is definitely WAY too costly.
06.17.08
No doubt there are certain times when the downside of failure completely outweighs the benefits. Also, there are different kinds of failure. Ultimate failure like you are talking about is certainly not what I am advocating practicing, nor is moral failure.
However, within each of the career fields you mentioned there are times in training, when lives aren't on the line, where failure can be very valuable in helping one know their limits and learn new techniques.
As a pilot I fall into this category. Am I going to try something new on an approach with 100 passengers in the back? No Way! But, during training both in the simulator and in the plane it has always been my failures that have taught me the most about the plane and my abilities.
In the end, if I hadn't failed on multiple occasions throughout the course of my aviation training I would actually be a much more dangerous pilot because I wouldn't know my limits and I would think nothing could touch me.
06.17.08
I like jrandom42's point.
And as Cameron is well aware of, there are certain circumstances that require a certain amount of care and precision, or sticking to textbook practice.
But, even doctors need to know when to take chances. How would medicine ever evolve if we didn't have clinical trials? Of course, both doctor and patient need to be aligned on the possibility of failure...but you get the point.
Just throwing it out there.
Great post!
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