There was an interesting article published recently in the Chicago Tribune. In it, a member of Chicago’s iconic business clan, the Pritzkers, talked about failure and the role it has played in shaping his life. While we have discussed failure here in the past, it’s a subject worth revisiting from time to time, if only to keep failure in perspective. So for more on this subject, and one Pritzker’s take on it, please read on.
Does fear of failure motivate or paralyze you?
Addressing a group on entrepreneurship, J.B. Pritzker, scion of the Hyatt Hotel chain said, “I have spent my adult life so far trying and failing. And I’ve learned way more from failures than I have from successes. I look at failure as something you do along the way to success.”
In his extraordinarily popular TED talk (*), creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson said, “If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original.” He might equally have said, “If you’re not prepared to fail . . . “
The problem is, fear of failure is a two-edged sword. For some, the fear of failure is the motivation that drives them forward . . . the commitment, the determination, and the resolve to do whatever is necessary to avoid failure. But for others, fear of failure is the glue that binds their feet to the floor, immobilizing them and preventing them from moving forward.
Does that mean “Damn the torpedos, full speed ahead!” is the correct response to any problem or opportunity. No, of course not. But entrepreneurs to need to realize that doing nothing is not necessarily a “safe play.” In fact, doing nothing can have far worse consequences than taking action. As someone once said, “I’d rather be sorry for something I did than something I didn’t do.”
So the message is, when facing a problem or opportunity, avoid a knee-jerk reaction. You shouldn’t automatically go “all in,” but nor should you become a deer in the headlights. You should consider all the possible responses to whatever situation you find yourself in, weigh the pros and cons, the risks and rewards of each, and then make the best decision you can. If it doesn’t work out the way you’d hoped, follow Mr. Pritzker’s advice: learn from it and treat it as “something you do along the way to success.”
Oh, and by the way, if you’re going to give yourself permission to fail once in awhile, you must allow others the same priviledge. If you want your people to learn and grow, then failure has to be one of the learning tools available to them.
(*) http://www.cnn.com/2009/OPINION/11/03/robinson.schools.stifle.creativity/
