Page 100 - Free the Idea Monkey

Chapter 6

I Fail, Therefore I Am
(an innovator)

Columbus insisted the world was round and then promptly
missed America on his first attempt. The Wright Brothers claimed
flying was possible and nearly killed themselves trying to prove it.
And, of course, Albert Einstein, whose very name we use as a short-
hand for “genius,” was a lousy student.

Our point: failure isn’t fatal; in fact, it is actually required for
innovation success.

If you study the pattern of companies that
have a history of introducing new products
successfully, you will see they follow a pat-
tern that looks like this: try, fail, learn;
try, fail, learn; try, succeed, repeat.
All that failure—all those introduc-
tions of versions of a product or
service that just don’t work—is a
critical cultural attribute for success-
ful, fast-growth companies.

“Failure is part of my success.” This is an idea you need to
accept if you are going to do your best work, and it is an idea you
definitely have to get across to your team in order to free it from the
innovation-limiting shackles of perfection. You need to make failure
a positive part of everyone’s personal brands.

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