If there is one thing that all super successful entrepreneurs agree on is the fact that failure is a necessary part of creating everything new and valuable. Almost all the millionaires you adore have failed at some point in their journey. This includes Jeff Bezos, the richest man in the world.
Failure is a necessary part of innovation, in other words, but a new book that collects the writings and public statements of Jeff Bezos, entitled "Invent and Wander: The Collected Writings," makes it clear that it does not mean that all failures be celebrated. There are two types of failures, according to him, and only one of them is a good thing.
Good failure vs. bad failure
Business Insider recently published a collection of the best excerpts from the book and one of which is especially important for entrepreneurs who are trying to balance the fear of failure with the degree of ambition. Bezos says that from the beginning, you should welcome failure, but argues that there are clear boundaries when your steps are wrong, that is, when failure "is to laugh" and when "to cry".
"I always point out that there are two different types of failure," Bezos writes. "There is an experimental failure - this is the kind of failure you should be happy with." But Bezos also notes that there is also "operational failure" and entrepreneurs should not tolerate this.
"We've built hundreds of Amazon hubs over the years and we know how to do that. If we build a new center and fail, this is not a good thing, because expanding the business into a known territory should not involve risk. "If you fail at something you know how to do well, there is nothing to celebrate," he said.
The conclusion according to Bezos is that, "when we are developing a new product or service or experimenting in some way, and it does not work, that's okay. This is a good failure. And you have to distinguish between these two types of failure and look for other innovations. ”
The key question to ask is if you were trying to do something good, before you failed. If so, learn from mistakes and do not feel bad about them. When you can not do something that you should have already known, you just do it right.
In other words, you need to give up on failure as the price of being brave, but feel the "pain" of failure in order to help you move forward.
Burimet: Inc Magazine, Business Insider
