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Robi Ganguly’s Big Ideas

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Go Fail Yourself

with 5 comments

Are you failing at failing?

Remember when you were young and everything was new to you? When you didn’t know what the word in the book you were reading aloud from was? When you mispronounced it and you might have felt a little silly, but mostly, you just wanted to know how to say it and what it meant?

Do you remember that feeling?

That was failing.

It wasn’t that bad was it?

Do you currently fail enough? Do you put yourself in enough situations to fail?  

I came across this short post at Futurelab about failure a bit ago that reinforces a belief that I hold strongly:

Expecting failure and embracing chance hold the key to success in business.

AND

The companies that are most able to explore and innovate – something akin to random [biological] mutation – and then rapidly and flexibly adapt when an innovation succeeds or fails, will do best.

Now, let’s think about that for a moment, shall we? I think that this is saying that if you’re not adept at dealing with change and failure, then you’re not going to do as well as those who are more capable. In business, but in life as well, I believe this to be true:

We must foster and develop our ability to deal with failure if we are to better ourselves.

 

So, I ask again: Are you failing at failing?

  • Are you not working enough at putting yourself into situations where you can fail?

  • Are you not taking enough risks?

  • Are you not seeking that which you are truly hopeful about, because the possibility of failure is so disappointing as to be avoided?

I’m failing at it right now. If you are too, I have a message from the folks at Wieden+Kennedy for both of us:

Written by Robi Ganguly

June 28th, 2007 at 1:53 am

Posted in Philosophy

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  • Ben Hoyt

    Oh man, if there’s one thing I can say with confidence,it’s that I’m NOT failing at failing. ;-) I’ve managed to put myself into a position with huge expectations, facing huge challenges, and non-trivial personal consequences if I fail. And, success is by NO means guaranteed. It’s scary just thinking about it. Thanks for making me feel a little better about it, Robi…

  • Jimbo

    You reference back in time to when we were children and really didn’t know much of anything really resonated with me. By that I mean that these days we all justify not taking risks by saying things like ‘I have so much to lose’ or ‘things are going well why would I want to rock the boat.’ If you think back to elementary mispronouncing a word when reading aloud in English class could lead to weeks or months of taunting! In case you weren’t one of chosen few that got teased let me fill you in on a secret: getting teased at that age was pretty damned bad! In fact, at that time in our lives giving others a reason to pick on you was probably equivalent to ‘losing everything!’

    It’s funny that we constantly rationalize with ourselves to justify why we don’t want to step out of our comfort zone and how literally from elementary school to the board room people seem to need a reminder to step out of the box if they want to make a difference in their lives or the lives of others.

    The principles of success seem to hold true across the board – if you continue to try and can manage to succeed only a fraction of the times you attempt something then you are bound for tremendous success. All too often I think that society writes off the success of others as it being given to them or that they don’t deserve it for one reason or another without really acknowledging the persistence it took to reach that level of success. Of course there are the Paris Hilton’s of the world, but then again (am I really saying this?) she has probably worked quite hard to translate her image into a brand and into a revenue stream. We all witnessed her failures and some of her failures are for sale on DVD! Ok … I can’t handle much more of that talk. Think Baseball .. a .300 hitter is Hall of Fame caliber. Think of it from the other perspective … 70% of that player’s entire career he failed to accomplish his goal.

    I’m sure if there was some cosmic scoreboard that mark would hold true for everything we’ve ever done … it’s that we write off the period of our life where we fail continuously in an attempt to persevere as childhood … and because everyone is progressing through the same trials it doesn’t feel abnormal. At this stage of our lives I guess we’re expected to have everything figured out … as if learning to ride a bike and read was all there was to conquering life! That and the fact that we are all attempting different things at different times probably attributes to the seemingly stronger sting to failure.

    Ok … rambling

    Great article Robi – for the record you put yourself out there every time you write in this blog. I’m sure that it is something that weighs on you to some extent … I’m sure I speak for nearly everyone when I say that your thoughts (even your stream of consciousness posts) are entertaining and/or inspirational to most people.

    I’m right beside you and Ben … a couple steps from who knows what …

  • stephen

    no, you go fail yourself. bitch.

  • Danielle

    Hey, just a note to say, I had a chance to read two of your posts. The one on failure and the one about going on your own. Your writing style is very engaging, and your points and as a previous commenter said “stream of conscience” writing style is unique and interesting.

    I have personally been thinking of where I am going, and your post on failure came at a good time for me. Additionally, I loved the story… Such a childhood moment nicely captured.

    -Danielle

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