Failing sucks. So why are so many start-ups and entrepreneurs talking so passionately about embracing failure?
When I first started taking a serious interest in starting a start-up, I liked the frank dialogues and openness towards failing. As a normally risk-averse guy, confronting failure and being told that it was ok to stumble and/or fall was, admittedly, a balm of sorts. Listening to experienced entrepreneurs' stories from the trenches, the memories of their battle scars, gave me some confidence to pursue my own dreams while thinking, "it's ok if I fail. Many greats have before me!"
But in the past 3 years or so, I've heard so much about failing and the need to embrace it that I'm getting sick of it. Yes, the fear of failure has caused millions of people to skimp on their dreams; yes, the fear of failure has caused numerous organizations to miss out on new market opportunities which have cost them millions of dollars and even bankruptcy; yes, there are scores of failures in the wake of many great entrepreneurs. Ok, I get it.
But can we go back to learning from bona-fide wins again? Here are 6 reasons why we should...
When I first started taking a serious interest in starting a start-up, I liked the frank dialogues and openness towards failing. As a normally risk-averse guy, confronting failure and being told that it was ok to stumble and/or fall was, admittedly, a balm of sorts. Listening to experienced entrepreneurs' stories from the trenches, the memories of their battle scars, gave me some confidence to pursue my own dreams while thinking, "it's ok if I fail. Many greats have before me!"
But in the past 3 years or so, I've heard so much about failing and the need to embrace it that I'm getting sick of it. Yes, the fear of failure has caused millions of people to skimp on their dreams; yes, the fear of failure has caused numerous organizations to miss out on new market opportunities which have cost them millions of dollars and even bankruptcy; yes, there are scores of failures in the wake of many great entrepreneurs. Ok, I get it.
But can we go back to learning from bona-fide wins again? Here are 6 reasons why we should...
1. As 37 Signal's Jason Fried so eloquently says:
"learning from failure may tell you what not to do the next time, but that doesn’t tell you what to do next time. I believe paying more attention to your successes leads to better outcomes.
Entrepreneurs like to say that a track record of some failures gives them some cred, especially in front of other entrepreneurs and investors. They proudly wear their failures like a badge of honour. I'll bet anything, though, that once those entrepreneurs have a win under their belt, their fail stories will get less airtime and they will, rightly, focus more on their wins. It makes no intuitive sense to keep talking about fails when you have wins in your cabinet! So why romanticize your failures at all? Get your wins in as quick as you can so you don't have to wallow in things that didn't work. In The Matrix, Morpheus emphatically tells a frustrated and overworked Neo, "stop trying to hit me, and hit me!" In much the same way, entrepreneurs and innovators should stop trying to win, and win!
2. Win stories are so much more positive and motivational to read. When was the last time you read a story about someone failing and actually felt good? If you did, chances are you have other issues. But most normal people would agree that success stories are feel good stories (please ignore the barrel of laughs you've had with your buddies while watching FailBlog videos). And when you feel good, you'll be more inspired to follow in the winners' leads.
3. Positive feelings biologically gear us to be better problem solvers. According to Dr. Barbara Frederickson on a study on positivity:
2. Win stories are so much more positive and motivational to read. When was the last time you read a story about someone failing and actually felt good? If you did, chances are you have other issues. But most normal people would agree that success stories are feel good stories (please ignore the barrel of laughs you've had with your buddies while watching FailBlog videos). And when you feel good, you'll be more inspired to follow in the winners' leads.
3. Positive feelings biologically gear us to be better problem solvers. According to Dr. Barbara Frederickson on a study on positivity:
“We literally see more [when we are positive] allowing us to face our problems with clear eyes, make creative connections and see more possible solutions for problems.”
What? I'll learn to minimize my fails by using wins to increase my creativity and smarts? Who would've thought!
4. Being too tolerant to or expectant of failures can get people complacent and/or sloppy. A commonly taught concept to increase innovation in organizations is that of insulating innovators from the rest of the organization. Their success criteria are vastly different from each other, and so they must be treated differently. Innovators, by merit of operating in a context of uncertainty, will likely see a higher chance of their projects falling through, hence, managers should have a higher tolerance for their (inevitable?) failures.
This all makes sense, but there is a dark side to this setup as well. Ever had an assignment or project get extended by a week only for you to see yourself still scramble to get it done? Everyone has. When the stakes of failure are lowered and expectations of it increase, it can act like a self-fulfilling prophesy. If a team is told that their odds of winning are very slim, would this not play even a slight toll on morale? Last I heard, 80% of all startups fail. And startups get fed this type of information all the time! How demoralizing. Now, I'm not saying that the reason why you still had trouble finishing that assignment was because the extension demoralized you. But I'm saying it could. Just a little.
5. Nobody got famous for just being a failure. Well, not the good type of famous at least. Failure doesn't save lives, it doesn't save money, it doesn't bring delight to anybody. Focusing too much on failure is focusing too much on an incomplete story. And it's the sadder part of that story, too. Michael Jordan famously said: "I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed." Do you think anybody would've cared for this quote if it weren't for the fact that Michael Jordan is probably the best basketball player to have ever graced the court? Jordan's vast success hugely overshadows his failures. And that is the side of the story that we should strive to achieve too.
In actuality, I think talking only about failure or talking only about wins is like talking about only one side of a coin. I personally enjoy and get the most out of stories that take me through the lows and highs of someone's struggles and victories. Failures can show you what doesn't work, wins can show you what does. But looking at the continuum of failing to winning is what brings out the insight of how one can travel the path to success. Take your trials and tribulations, show me what you learned and how you went from fail to win.
So, can someone put together a rags-to-riches blog, please? Thanks.
This all makes sense, but there is a dark side to this setup as well. Ever had an assignment or project get extended by a week only for you to see yourself still scramble to get it done? Everyone has. When the stakes of failure are lowered and expectations of it increase, it can act like a self-fulfilling prophesy. If a team is told that their odds of winning are very slim, would this not play even a slight toll on morale? Last I heard, 80% of all startups fail. And startups get fed this type of information all the time! How demoralizing. Now, I'm not saying that the reason why you still had trouble finishing that assignment was because the extension demoralized you. But I'm saying it could. Just a little.
5. Nobody got famous for just being a failure. Well, not the good type of famous at least. Failure doesn't save lives, it doesn't save money, it doesn't bring delight to anybody. Focusing too much on failure is focusing too much on an incomplete story. And it's the sadder part of that story, too. Michael Jordan famously said: "I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed." Do you think anybody would've cared for this quote if it weren't for the fact that Michael Jordan is probably the best basketball player to have ever graced the court? Jordan's vast success hugely overshadows his failures. And that is the side of the story that we should strive to achieve too.
In actuality, I think talking only about failure or talking only about wins is like talking about only one side of a coin. I personally enjoy and get the most out of stories that take me through the lows and highs of someone's struggles and victories. Failures can show you what doesn't work, wins can show you what does. But looking at the continuum of failing to winning is what brings out the insight of how one can travel the path to success. Take your trials and tribulations, show me what you learned and how you went from fail to win.
So, can someone put together a rags-to-riches blog, please? Thanks.
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