I like simple. Easy. Straight-forward. I don't like to over-think stuff. So when it comes to chasing the perfect "success" - which requires detailed planning, perfect execution, and no room for error... it all just seems like too much work. I'd never start. And if I did, what are my guarantees? It could take forever!
I much rather enjoy trying stuff as fast as I can, making changes, learning, and then trying again. In some cases, failing over and over and eventually hitting success, in other cases - letting go and trying something else. One of Richard and my heroes is leadership and management "guru" Tom Peters. Tom has said, "Whoever Tries The Most Stuff And Screws The Most Stuff Up The Fastest Wins" among other great points extolling the virtues of failing fast. For us, we'll just stick to failing our way to success. Avoiding failure is just too much work.
Monday, January 23, 2012
Monday, January 2, 2012
Fail Big, Fail Fast, Fail Well
If you want to make serious progress this year, take my advice and start failing. Seth Godin was interviewed on video a while back saying, "If I fail more than you do, I win."
Don't make 2012 the year you played it safe.
Fail Big. How? Look for outrageous projects, big clients, crazy ventures - and don't do anything unless it gives you butterflies in your stomach. When you have those... that's the test - you know it's big enough.
Fail Fast. Learn from your failures and make the adjustments quickly. Appreciate the failures and keep going and trying.
Fail Well. If you have a cat you know that they like to race around for a few minutes each day followed by hours of napping. So our cat, Courage, comes speeding through the living room toward his 6 foot cat tree. He springs up - flings his front legs into the air - claws out - prepared to grab onto the side of the perch. He totally misses the jump and falls backward. It was ugly and I saw the whole thing. Courage turned around and saw me; he was stunned. He rubbed his paw over his face a couple times and walked it off. Now that's failing well. It's gonna happen. People may even see it happen. Just walk it off. Try again better.
Don't make 2012 the year you played it safe.
Fail Big. How? Look for outrageous projects, big clients, crazy ventures - and don't do anything unless it gives you butterflies in your stomach. When you have those... that's the test - you know it's big enough.
Fail Fast. Learn from your failures and make the adjustments quickly. Appreciate the failures and keep going and trying.
Fail Well. If you have a cat you know that they like to race around for a few minutes each day followed by hours of napping. So our cat, Courage, comes speeding through the living room toward his 6 foot cat tree. He springs up - flings his front legs into the air - claws out - prepared to grab onto the side of the perch. He totally misses the jump and falls backward. It was ugly and I saw the whole thing. Courage turned around and saw me; he was stunned. He rubbed his paw over his face a couple times and walked it off. Now that's failing well. It's gonna happen. People may even see it happen. Just walk it off. Try again better.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
