There are many great quotes from famous people that tell us how they learned from their mistakes. The following are some famous quotes from Thomas Edison:
Just because something doesn’t do what you set it to do, doesn’t mean it isn’t useful.
Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
I haven’t failed yet. I just found 10,000 ways that don’t work.
If one of the world’s most famous inventors can laugh at his mistakes and move on, we should all be able to do the same. A recent article in Business Week entitled “How Failure Leads to Success” talks about many of the well-known mistakes big companies make. For example, the article talks about Coca Cola’s mistake in introducing “New Coke”.
After the fiasco with New Coke, the CEO admitted publicly that his company was making a big mistake. But, he said, “You’re going to see some failures…. Because we’re taking more risks, this is something we have to accept as part of the regeneration process.” The CEO knew that Coca Cola had to take greater risks and tolerate failure to lead to greater growth and success.
Stefab G, Thomke, a professor at Harvard Business School and author of Experimentation Matters, states: “Failure is not a bad thing… (Failure) is essential to the experimental process.” Business Week, 10 July 2006, p. 44. The Business Week article goes on to say that innovation requires organizations to explore, experiment, and err. Intelligent failure should be encouraged as part of the success process.
What does all this mean for a small business or entrepreneur? We can learn from big companies that risk is a big part of the growth process. We can learn to encourage our employees to “think outside the box” and not fear retribution if they make a mistake. We must learn not to avoid risks and accept mistakes as part of the growth process.
We must also learn to listen to our employees, our customers, and our vendors, because they can provide us with a different perspective that can lead to profitable new ideas. We have to learn to ask these people questions and let them work on prototypes before our new project goes too far. Finally, we can look back at past failures to consider whether they provide new information about our current operations.
Jo Ann Joy, Esq., MBA, CEO
The future of your business starts here!
You can contact Jo Ann by phone at (602) 663-7007, by fax at (602) 324-7582, by email at joannjoy@Indigo Business Solutions.net, and by mail at 2313 East Ocotillo Rd., Phoenix, AZ 85016. I have many articles published, and I’ll send any to you free of charge. Most consultations are free.
