Fail Fast !

"Starting my own business was the only thing that made life’s other risks—marriage, Vegas, alligator wrestling—seem like sure things. But my hope was that when I failed, if I failed, I’d fail quickly, so I’d have enough time, enough years, to implement all the hard-won lessons. I wasn’t much for setting goals, but this goal kept flashing through my mind every day, until it became my internal chant: Fail fast."*

This quote is from Phil Knight's stunning memoir "Shoe Dog". (A must-read tale of entrepreneurship that reads like a thriller.)

Now, if you're anything like me - failure isn't something you take lightly.

 But in truth, it's when we fail that we learn the most.

 In sports, when we win - we celebrate. When we lose, we take a hard look in the mirror at what went wrong and try to do better next time. The same is true in business.

The great paradox of failure is that it's those who fail repeatedly who eventually succeed. Also, failure is stigmatized as something negative in society - but it's the essential fuel of success.

 Another quote - this time from Jeff Bezos - who explicitly encourages failure at Amazon!:

  "One area where I think we are especially distinctive is failure. I believe we are the best place in the world to fail (we have plenty of practice!), and failure and invention are inseparable twins." **

Failing fast means trying. It means- for instance - that you don't develop a product far away from the customer only to find out they don't need it.

To do so, you certainly need a culture where failure is accepted. Is Amazon the exception or is it becoming the norm?

What do you think?

  * Source: Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike by Phil Knight

** Source: amazon.com, 2015 letter to shareholders