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Dec 13
Why I Hire People Who Fail - Jeff Stibel - Harvard Business Review. Jeff has some great points here. So much of what I have read and experienced in life has been about finding new ways to fail. It saddens me to think how modern education systems and workplaces spend so much time/effort on eliminating mistakes, mitigating risk, and standardizing individual performance. Consider that in most developed nations we spend 12-20 years in classrooms, another 20-30 in workplaces that continually revolved around right answers and performance standards, when true excellence is often the result of asking different questions and going beyond those standards. With the rise in technology-based innovations, we are increasingly we are seeing many of those innovators coming from a younger and younger demographic, ones who have not yet been indoctrinated in the limits and expectations of standardization and mediocrity. We need a new contract on failing. One that creates an environment where existing rules are merely one approach, that permits/encourages alternative approaches to existing problems. Einstein did this. MLK Jr did this. Jobs did this. And so can future innovators and change-makers who are encouraged in their pursuits of thinking a bit differently. Books/Resources John Maxwell, Failing Forward: a seminal work on the importance of overcoming fear. Seth Godin, Poke the Box: quick read on urgency of initiation in a world of constant change. James Allen, As a Man Thinketh: free/classic read on precedence of mind over circumstance. Quotes/Perspectives “Circumstance does not make the man, it reveals him to himself.” James Allen “Life’s challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they’re supposed to help you discover who you are.” Bernice Johnson Reagon “There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth. Not going all the way, and not starting.” Siddhrtha Gautama “I define anxiety as experiencing failure in advance…and if you have anxiety about initiating a project, then of course you will associate risk with failure.” Seth Godin “There are no mistakes. The events we bring upon ourselves, no matter how unpleasant, are necessary in order to learn what we need to learn; whatever steps we take, they’re necessary to reach the places we’ve chosen to go.” Richard Bach “There is nothing that wastes the body like worry, and one who has any faith in God should be ashamed to worry about anything whatsoever.” Mahatma Gandi “When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you ‘till it seems as though you could not hold on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.” Harriet Beecher Stowe “You shall be free indeed when your days are not without a care nor your nights without a want and a grief. But rather when these things girdle your life and yet you rise above them naked and unbound.” Kahlil Gibran “Do not weep; do not wax indignant. Understand.” Baruch Spinoza “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Security does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than exposure.” Helen Keller “Courage is doing what you’re afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you’re scared.” Eddie Rickenbacker “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” Mark Twain “Always make new mistakes” Esther Dyson (and the sign that sits in my living room)

Why I Hire People Who Fail - Jeff Stibel - Harvard Business Review.

Jeff has some great points here. So much of what I have read and experienced in life has been about finding new ways to fail. It saddens me to think how modern education systems and workplaces spend so much time/effort on eliminating mistakes, mitigating risk, and standardizing individual performance. Consider that in most developed nations we spend 12-20 years in classrooms, another 20-30 in workplaces that continually revolved around right answers and performance standards, when true excellence is often the result of asking different questions and going beyond those standards.

With the rise in technology-based innovations, we are increasingly we are seeing many of those innovators coming from a younger and younger demographic, ones who have not yet been indoctrinated in the limits and expectations of standardization and mediocrity.

We need a new contract on failing. One that creates an environment where existing rules are merely one approach, that permits/encourages alternative approaches to existing problems. Einstein did this. MLK Jr did this. Jobs did this. And so can future innovators and change-makers who are encouraged in their pursuits of thinking a bit differently.

Books/Resources

Quotes/Perspectives

  • “Circumstance does not make the man, it reveals him to himself.” James Allen
  • “Life’s challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they’re supposed to help you discover who you are.” Bernice Johnson Reagon
  • “There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth. Not going all the way, and not starting.” Siddhrtha Gautama
  • “I define anxiety as experiencing failure in advance…and if you have anxiety about initiating a project, then of course you will associate risk with failure.” Seth Godin
  • “There are no mistakes. The events we bring upon ourselves, no matter how unpleasant, are necessary in order to learn what we need to learn; whatever steps we take, they’re necessary to reach the places we’ve chosen to go.” Richard Bach
  • “There is nothing that wastes the body like worry, and one who has any faith in God should be ashamed to worry about anything whatsoever.” Mahatma Gandi
  • “When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you ‘till it seems as though you could not hold on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.” Harriet Beecher Stowe
  • “You shall be free indeed when your days are not without a care nor your nights without a want and a grief. But rather when these things girdle your life and yet you rise above them naked and unbound.” Kahlil Gibran
  • “Do not weep; do not wax indignant. Understand.” Baruch Spinoza
  • “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Security does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than exposure.” Helen Keller
  • “Courage is doing what you’re afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you’re scared.” Eddie Rickenbacker
  • “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” Mark Twain
  • “Always make new mistakes” Esther Dyson (and the sign that sits in my living room)

Posted 5 months ago

failure,