It is traditional for people to make a list of resolutions to accomplish in a new year. The resolutions are accompanied by happy thoughts for success and innovation.
I urge you to resolve to fail next year.
Seth Godin explains why failure is healthy in yesterday’s blog post. An extract:
Painters, musicians, entrepreneurs, writers, chiropractors, accountants–we all fail far more than we succeed. We fail at closing a sale or playing a note. We fail at an idea for a series of paintings or the theme for a trade show booth.
But we succeed far more often than people who have no ideas at all.
Someone asked me where I get all my good ideas, explaining that it takes him a month or two to come up with one and I seem to have more than that. I asked him how many bad ideas he has every month. He paused and said, “none.”
And there, you see, is the problem.
Bad ideas cause failure, and failure breeds success and happy thoughts to try, try, try again and do that thing that you do best. If you never take a chance, if you never gamble on a risk, if you never taste failure, you’ll keep running in circles with no end in sight. The moment you divert from the path most traveled by is the moment you can make a difference.
I want you to succeed in 2010, but you can only do that by being unique, by trying something different, by taking a risk, by failing.
You have nine days until New Years Eve. Start making that list.
No related posts.
{ 1 trackback }
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
True words Ari. Failure is more interesting for a variety of reasons. History demonstrates this.
New ideas + meaningful content are likely the most memorable. Thanks for keeping the bar raised. Here’s to innovation in 2010. Let’s keep exploring the angles.
Exploring angles or failing at it?
Great question, I’m being philosophical again.
When you explore the angles, you naturally run the risk of failing. It’s part of stretching out of the comfort zone + asking for more meaning. From a purely pragmatic perspective, ideas fail when there is no support or plan beyond what exists in the present. Important note: this does not make them less fascinating or useful. Some have coined me an #ideawaterfall
I will start working on my fail list, fun times.
Hey Ari,
RE: POWER-FAILING
Great topic. To me, failure is just data – something that didn’t work. A result all the same. If anything, I like to fast-track failure because of the richness of the success data it provides. This ‘power-failing’ is a very useful competency for innovation.
Have a failure-filled New Year
Best, Robin
New from Robin Dickinson: How to generate an endless flow of fantastic ideas: Part 2
Would I fail by not replying here?
Even when you fall, you are moving forward!
We can’t afford to fail in 2010 anymore. This year we failed, and hoping not anymore. Let’s keep outside the parabola.
New from Nicole Owagan: Biweekly Mortgage Rant – Other payments that should be automatic
I love failing! That said, I love overcoming that hurdle even more!
I treat each of these moments as an opportunity to improve. Most times that works out just fine.
But there is a point at which you cannot afford to fail anymore, no?
2009 was a year of much failure for me. I didn’t really have a solid idea of what my business was all about until this month — one year since its launch. I’m sure I missed out on opportunities while I was figuring it all out. Almost nothing worked out the way it seemed, at least at one point, that it would. And I worry that I should’ve figured it all out months ago.
Going into 2010, I worry that I won’t be able to pull it off, at a time when my family needs my income most. In principle I don’t mind failing; I agree with everything you’ve said. But in practice? It’s a lot harder to allow ourselves to fail, especially when the stakes are high.
The real key may be in dealing with the fear of failure by mapping out all the things that could go wrong, along with the things that could go right, at every turn. I know, for instance, that we won’t be homeless (though having to move in with my in-laws might be only slightly less stressful).
I do have hope for 2010, in a cautiously-optimistic kind of way. You could say that I failed so much this year, what’s one more? And yet I’m kinda out of time. I’m sure this year’s failures will see me picking up the pieces and moving along as usual. Just can’t say I’ll roll with it as easily as I did last year!
New from Christa M. Miller: Presenting to community groups? Share!
Very nice post Ari. It’s good to portray failure in a positive light. The best of the best have gotten that way through failure including Steve Jobs (once fired from his own company Apple) and Thomas Edison (1,000s of attempts before getting lightbulb right).
It’s also important to note that one should learn from failure and not make the same mistakes over and over. I think there is a distinction there.
Hi Ari, every time we discover what doesn’t work, we move closer to solving a problem, overcoming an obstacle, or making a personal breakthrough. Every life lesson we learn, negative or positive, is a personal development treasure.
New from Jonathan@Advanced Life Skills: The True Essence Of Giving
Nice point. It was only recently I discovered that failure can be a gift, an opportunity to improve or perfect something.
Even in the smallest ways, for example, when I think of times I was about to publish a blog post and the computer crashed… I was mad and disappointed that a great amount of work was wasted.
But any replacement blog post which ever eventuated after any such tragedy was always better, and took ideas much deeper than the original one. The loss was just an opportunity to create something better…
New from PUA: Approaching Women: Advanced Tips.
Ari,
I certainly can’t argue with you here. If you aren’t failing, you aren’t on a success path.
New from Ralph: Up with Failure
…though, you shouldn’t be trying to fail; but you shouldn’t be surprised by failure.