STFU #78 - When Ghori won over Prithviraj Chauhan (1192) and Air New Zealand Crash (1979) - ‘Good’ Failure. ‘Bad’ Failure.

— Muhammad Ghori vs Prithviraj Chauhan —?

The two battles of Tarain are earmarked in Indian History as they changed the face of India completely, leading to the ‘Sultanate’ from the Middle East ruling over the country for more than 500 years. What exactly happened?

In 1191, the famous Rajput King,?Prithviraj Chauhan, fought with the Muslim Ruler, Muhammad Ghori in the First Battle of Tarain (a place near Bhatinda). With the strength of his cavalry and aggression, Prithviraj?decisively defeated Muhammad Ghori. However, Ghori, even though was badly defeated and barely survived to get out of the battlefield, did not retreat to his kingdom in disgrace.?

Instead, Ghori treated his loss as a temporary setback, celebrated the lessons learned, and used that knowledge to come back stronger the following year.?He got the army back to Ghazni and made them stay in one area for a year, preparing for a second attack, by constantly improvizing from the last defeat.?

In 1192, Ghori came back and fought the Second Battle of Tarain, with few changes that reflected a significant shift in military tactics and planning -?

Against Chauhan’s Rajput forces, which had a strong defensive formation, Ghori employed Feigned Retreats (pretending to retreat and then attacking right when the enemy got distracted), which led to confusion among the Rajput troops and allowed Ghori's cavalry to encircle and attack them more effectively.?

He also surprised Prithviraj Chauhan by attacking early in the morning, catching the Rajput forces off guard.?He also had a more organized?and much more mobile?cavalry.?

The combination of these lessons allowed Muhammad Ghori to decisively defeat Prithviraj Chauhan,?paving the way for the establishment of Muslim rule in northern India, which later evolved into the Delhi Sultanate.

As per some narratives, Muhammad Ghori supposedly lost 17 battles before finally winning the Second Battle of Tarain!

Ghori took failure as a learning and used it to get success.

— Mount Erebus Air Disaster --

In 1977 Air New Zealand began offering scenic flights over Antarctica in 11-hour nonstop flights,?providing views and photographic opportunities of Antarctica. The flights were usually sold out.?

On November 28, 1979, the weekly flight TE901 took off as?scheduled. Although the pilots had never flown to Antarctica, both of them were debriefed on the path. As per the protocol,?the pilots entered latitude and longitude coordinates into the airplane’s computer navigation system, which enabled the aircraft to fly automatically to its destination.

Unknown to the pilots, however, someone had modified the flight coordinates by a mere two degrees. This error placed the aircraft 31 miles (50 km) to the east of where the pilots assumed they were.?Instead of flying over a plain, the plane was to pass over Ross Island and Mount Erebus, an active volcano 12,450 feet (3,800 meters) high.

As they approached Antarctica, the pilots descended to 2000 feet to give the passengers a better look at the landscape. While below what was considered a safe altitude, low levels were common for sightseeing flights.?

As the pilots flew onward, the white of the snow and ice covering the volcano blended with the white of the clouds above, making it appear as though they were flying over flat ground. By the time the instruments sounded the warning that the ground was rising fast toward them, it was too late.?

About five minutes later, all communication with the airplane crew stopped.

The airplane crashed into the side of the volcano, killing all 237 passengers and 20 crew members on board.?

It was a terrible tragedy brought on by a minor failure—a matter of only a few degrees

— ‘Good Failure. Bad Failure’ ---

On one hand, the failure of the First Battle of Tairan made Ghori come back and learn from his mistakes. He picked up every skill set needed to fight, step by step, and defeated the enemy the next time they fought a battle. It was a ‘good’ failure.

On the other hand, a basic mistake did irreversible damage to the flight and caused a big dent in many Families! It was a 'bad' failure.

How is failure ‘good’ and ‘bad’ in startups?

In the current hypercompetitive era, most businesses are not structured to embrace failure or crisis. Successes are celebrated, while failures are avoided. You only end up seeing the startups that survive (Survivorship bias). You don’t see too many failures.

Similarly, whether it is the social capital or status within organizations, most people tend to avoid admitting mistakes - they either keep justifying their efforts or externalize the failures, just to safeguard themselves. As they say,?Success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan.?

To make things worse,?the higher people rise, the more they tend to trust their own judgment and the less others tend to question them.

In short, Failure can?be classified into three categories (as per?Amy Edmondson, a Harvard Business School professor) -?

• ‘bad’ failure, arising from human error, negligence, or inability, that can be prevented.?
• ‘inevitable’ failure, arising from ambiguity or interdependence, that can be anticipated and mitigated.
• ‘Good’ or ‘intelligent’ failure, arising from exploration, experimentation, or innovation, should be encouraged.

In case of ‘bad’ failure, consequences are important.?Swallowing your pride and admitting that you’ve been wrong or that you made mistakes isn’t easy, but it’s highly efficient. More importantly, when?genuine carelessness and neglect are appropriately punished, employees feel safer - maybe this reinforces meritocracy amongst them. Holding people accountable for problematic behaviors helps build more transparency and trust in the system.

On the other hand,?when it is a failure while going out of the norm, it should be encouraged and celebrated.?'Good' and 'Intelligent' Failures result in utilizing your hidden potential.?It’s the bumpy road that shapes your personality and adds interesting stories to your journey.

— #storyoftrue --

At True Elements, we have an internal principle that is shared with every person who joins us from outside. As a team, we FAIL to win. While the underlying connotation is that Failure is our biggest teacher, it also serves as an acronym for how to fail and then win - Fight till it's done, Accountable for your tasks, Initiate / Ask (Speak up), and Learn from your mistakes.

Time and again, this acronym has sustained itself - means it still works for us!?

— International Day for Failure --

Today, October 13th, is celebrated as the International Day for Failure. An initiative of a few students from Finland, this day was born from the need to boost entrepreneurial efforts in Finland. Being from a conservative nation, where the fear of failure was deterring many from starting new ventures, the students decided to embrace failure and motivate others to share ‘failures’ openly to be more confident about taking chances and change their attitude towards failure!

In summary,?It is ok NOT to be perfect.?As Elon Musk says, “If something is important enough, you should try. Even if the most likely outcome is failure”

'Good' Failure is what drives success.?Crazy dreams take crazy effort - most of which would fail.?Discuss ‘good’ Failure. Celebrate it or Talk about it.?

Punish ‘Bad’ failure.?Ensure Consequences

For the ones who believe they are lucky enough not to have 'failed', come over sometime to the real world.

For the ones who, like us, can make a museum out of the 'failure' stories,

STFU!

References - Thinking Big, 10x is easier than 2x, Google Images