Nick said...
I think you're right Dan. The story of real human success is one not of ground-breaking overnight inventions or theorems (although that has of course happened) but generally learning from our own and others' mistakes.

I ran an offsite for a client recently where I urged them all to be ready to fail. In the UK, we have a cultural aversion to failure, and it's not helpful.

It's not that I am urging people to fail, but to be ready to fail. We should, of course, pursue excellence but recognise that from time to time we will all make a mistake or two. Sometimes this will be monumental, sometimes not. What is important is that we recongise the failure (and yes, let's use that word rather than the wishy-washy, New Labourish "development opportunity" bullshit that we've all - stupidly - grown accustomed to).

And we have to fail quickly. I have worked with organisation after organisation where no one was prepared to put their hand up, admit a cock up and do so in a timely fashion. So instead the failure is compounded rather than dealt with.

I always tell clients about the Commodore 64 (some of you will remember playing on it as a kid just like me). Why is it called the Commodore 64?

You got it. The previous 63 iterations were failures.

So, in a completely counter-cultural, counter-zeitgeist message, ladies and gents - LET'S GET READY TO FAIL.

It is the mark of all truly successful people.

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