I AM A FAILURE!

I have failed as a CEO, failed as a designer, failed as a student, failed as a father, failed as a son, failed at under 18 Hawick Albion RFC winger against Stirling Country 1990 (they were a good team). I am a failure.

Wouldn’t life be boring if we were all perfect, if we nailed everything we did first time. A world where everything was complete, everything was exact and there was no ‘what if’, ‘how about’ or ‘let’s try this’. For one thing I am sure this computer wouldn’t be here. We would still be offering leaches as the cure for the common cold and our planet would be a completely different place

How we have evolved as a species has been achieved by failure, followed by more failure, followed by success. Sometimes the successes we achieve end up as a barrier to progress, whilst the failures take us on leaps and bounds. I love Bill Bryson’s take on the world in his book ‘A Short History of Nearly Everything’.

“If this book has a lesson, it is that we are awfully lucky to be here-and by 'we' I mean every living thing. To attain any kind of life in this universe of ours appears to be quite an achievement. As humans we are doubly lucky, of course: We enjoy not only the privilege of existence but also the singular ability to appreciate it and even, in a multitude of ways, to make it better. It is a talent we have only barely begun to grasp.”

Making things better is an amazing attribute to have as individuals. We are often driven by a need to make our life’s better, make our relationships better, even make a Under 18 Hawick Albion RFC winger a little better. But to be better we must firstly fail and it's this failure that many cannot grasp as the stepping stone to success.

It is often easy to celebrate success. The ￡2 lottery win, the DIY project that you nailed or even the chat-up line that actually worked! We all bask in these glories and yes, we have success. However, they often become the end of the journey. Completed. Nailed-it. Done. You’ve gained ￡2, so you go spend it on another lottery ticket, done. You finish the DIY project and put your feet up, done, you marry the chat-up line recipient, job done!

But it is a completely different mindset to celebrating failure! If you haven’t already read ‘Black Box Thinking’ by Mathew Syed, I would thoroughly advise you do. His book looks at two very different industries comparing an environment which welcomes and champions failure to grow and evolve, against a ridged, self-preserving, blame culture. It is a truly inspiration look at how people and businesses should champion failure and be open to failure as one of their biggest assets for future success. An asset that can catapult business to success in more ways than just profit.

Embracing failure is a big mindset change and one that takes nurturing, openness, encouragement and support. It is one that I feel strongly that we at LEWIS are embracing and are on a journey to harness and grow with a passion. We know that being vulnerable is a trait we try to hide. However, leaders, visionaries and inspirational individuals who can harness the power of being vulnerable can gain strength ten-fold.

We’ve implemented many new things at LEWIS over the past couple of years, the bonus system, fully flexible working, pension plans, perks, WorkflowMax, Xero Accounting and many more. But I’ll doubt very much if any of you saw the hundreds of failures we had along the way. The failure to communicate change to team-mates, the failure of pulling the wrong data, the failure to pick the best plan to begin with, the failure to use the right company for our needs, the failure to buy the right software, the failure in the system process, the failure to pitch the right creds, the failure to secure a new client, the failure to get to that meeting, the list goes on.

Mathew Syed in Black Box Thinking retells the story of meeting James Dyson. The truly inspirational inventor defines his success not by what he achieved, but his aptitude to continue to fail and fail again. In fact, Dyson states that he wasn't the first person to patent the cyclone vacuum cleaner, two people had come up with the idea before him. The difference between the three was that the other two gave-up after they had made their first patent. Dyson on the other hand went on to produced over 2,500 prototypes and patents to make the Cyclone what it is today. Apparently he’s still not fully happy with it!

We’ve been really lucky that we’ve had thousands of failures in the past 45 years. Yes, lucky that its thousands and not just one or two! For each and every failure we have grown, gained knowledge, skills, expertise and taken the business from point A to point Z.

EOS has a statement, which our MD Barry continually uses at the Leadership meetings, which is ‘36hrs of pain’. The fact that we just need to take action, not worrying too much about the consequences, but rather focusing on making small failures quickly, learning from them instantly and succeeding in the continued enhancement, change and movement forward. Our brand values focus on ‘Being Real’, ‘Leading the Way’ and ‘Being Commercially Savvy’. Taking these three values and even just using these as a barometer to our next action or activities, we know that whatever we do we'll be making the right choices.

Failure is a by-product of change. But change drives progress and progress drives business growth. It’s a strange calculation and one that many people and businesses would be scared stiff to start. Why would you want to start on failure, why can’t we start on success and go forward from there? Maybe because we would never move forward with any great pace, life would be boring, and we would all be dull robots. I love the quote by Mathew Syed;

‘The only way to be sure is to go out and test your ideas and programmes, and to realise that you will often be wrong. But that is not a bad thing. It leads to progress.’

So, I am proud to be a failure! I am proud that I’m not perfect and that it sometimes takes me ages to get things right, but all these failures have made me a better CEO, better father, better son, better under 18 rugby player (the following season we went unbeaten).

Failure is the stepping stone to success. Be open to change, open to failure, be vulnerable and welcome comment and challenge into your world. Go on be a great failure!