Failure, It's Not a Bad Thing

I stumbled today into a new concept. It is called Day for Failure and I think it is very interesting and should be recognized more publicly. The web is full of those 'motivational' pictures about epic fails. Those are amusing. But on the other hand, I think failure is seen many times in too negative way.

Failure is a blessing! It tells you that you did something that you shouldn't try again. It's offering you valuable insight about how life works and something even more important. Failure opens a door for learning.

Mr. Edison might be the most known people to fail. Or as he puts it, found ways that don't work. But I think the main message is this: you only fail if you give up. If you make a mistake and learn, you haven't failed in this negative sense that so many people use. Or we can call that failure, but it's still a good thing.

Lean Startup along with the concept of Validated Learning has been one of my favorite books. Probably due to it saying the same thing. Experiment. My mistakes. Fail fast. And then try again. The faster we fail, the faster we gain more knowledge. And the safer and less costly we make failing, the more we can utilize its awesome power.

So next week, on October 13th and after that, start building a new culture at your workplace! Share and celebrate failures. They offer you and your colleagues information and learning you could never achieve by always staying on the safe side. And by sharing the experiences, you don't have to repeat the same failures but can try new ones.