The Value of Failure I have been pondering on the value of failure in successful innovation. Im not about to ask you to fail for the sake of failing but to be bolder and attenuate your risk aversion. A great number of people fear change, in fact great ideas are rejected on these grounds. As a result innovation is stiffled and constricted to a point of recession because people are simply afraid. You should never be afraid of failure for it carries lessons. Theres this weve always done it this way approach which is a barrier to progress and improvement. The power of failure is that it gives you experience which is necessary in your journey. I have put together a list of individuals who failed before but refused to see their failure as a complete end: Jeff Bezos is arguably one of the world’s greatest entrepreneurs and innovators. Amazon is an undeniable success yet Bezos and his business practically failed several times before Amazon became what it is today. As a young man, Walt Disney was fired by one of his first employers because “he lacked imagination and had no ideas”. Henry Ford’s first business ventures failed several times before the immense success of Ford Motor Company. Thomas Edison was told by his teachers that he was “too stupid to learn” and he was even fired from his first two jobs for not being productive enough. As an inventor, Edison made thousands of unsuccessful attempts at inventing the first commercially practical incandescent light bulb, which eventually resulted in success. Akio Morita was the co-founder of Sony. Sony’s first product was a rice cooker and a failure: it burnt rice rather than cooking it and sold under 100 units. Morita and his partners learnt from this failure and persevered to create the multi-billion company we are familiar with today. Steve Jobs was fired from his position as head of Apple’s Macintosh division in 1985. He went on to found NeXt computer, but struggled to find the right markets and consumers. Its software division was acquired by Apple in 1997 and Jobs came back to Apple to resume his incredible ascension. In 2000 he was appointed CEO of Apple. Bill Gates started his entrepreneurial career by founding a business called Traf-O-Data with Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, but it was unsuccessful. They went on to create an immense multinational corporation. We’ll finish with this: In 1975, when Steve Sasson, the Kodak engineer who invented the first digital camera presented his invention to his management, he received this response: “That’s cute, but don’t tell anyone about it.” Facebook: Sammy Dollar Sehoana Twitter: @Amangwa Instagram: Sammy_Dollar_Sehoana E-mail: blessed.samm@gmail Dollar Said!
Posted on: Fri, 21 Nov 2014 06:25:41 +0000
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