Failure: The Badge of Honor

At the end of the day if we consider about the tags that we bear, you will find “We are all failures - at least the best of us are.” - J.M. Barrie. Failure! Is it always bad? I still I don’t know the answer as I haven’t seen my good days yet and unaware about the past that I have left behind. But one thing for sure, if you haven’t tried yet you are far away from taste of success or failure. Don’t get me wrong, I am not here to motivate someone or some group- I am not a motivational speaker or writer. I am just searching for the answer for a never-ending question “is failure really bad?”

Marwaris, one or the best groups of people in this subcontinent with highest level of business acumen, will refuse to give their daughters’ hand to someone who have not lost his capital at least once. Why they do this? From their hundreds years of business aptitudes, they know a person failed already is less likely to fail in future than a man who yet to test the bitterness of failure. Doesn’t it make sense? Let me tell you something that most of us never imagined of. By the same principle, though not recognized formally, of Marwaris’ Silicon Valley, the tech and idea hub of the world, is running when it comes to financing a venture. In Silicon Valley, failure is a badge of honor for the entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs with bankruptcy record are more likely to get funding from investors than an entrepreneur with no failure records. Investors are very aware about the fact that smart people learns from failure and that may term as a “successful failure” which money can’t buy, schools can’t teach- only being in situation can teach you. That’s why Silicon Valley got more entrepreneurs than European countries. In Germany, for instance, one-time bankruptcy means your career is ruined forever.

A.G. Lafley, a successful ex-boss of Procter & Gamble (P&G), proclaiming that “we learn much more from failure than we do from success.” But failure without learning makes no sense at all. Still IDEO, a European consultancy firm, proclaims that “fail often in order to succeed sooner”.

But simply “embracing” failure would be as silly as ignoring it. Companies need to learn how to manage it. Amy Edmondson of Harvard Business School argues that the first thing they must do is distinguish between productive and unproductive failures. There is nothing to be gained from tolerating defects on the production line or mistakes in the operating theatre. But you can’t take it as a fashion as the way youths, now a day at least, pretend to become Devdas to have the sympathy of Paru or to justify their alcoholic habit.

Entrepreneurs have always understood those. Thomas Edison tried 9,000 times before he come up with a successful version of light bulb and when he was asked for his trial and error madness, here replied that he is getting towards his success.

Here am quoting some lines from The Economist “Failure is also becoming more common. John Hagel, of Deloitte's Centre for the Edge (which advises bosses on technology), calculates that the average time a company spends in the S&P 500 index has declined from 75 years in 1937 to about 15 years today. Up to 90% of new businesses fail shortly after being founded. Venture-capital firms are lucky if 20% of their investments pay off. Pharmaceutical companies research hundreds of molecular groups before coming up with a marketable drug. Less than 2% of films account for 80% of box-office returns.”

Note: Information and citations incorporated from several newspapers and published articles.