There is a sharp contrast in the attitudes to business failure in the US and Europe and this is often cited as one of the reasons for the more entrepreneurial, innovation lead culture across the pond.
When he visited the UK in 2009, Craig Newmark, founder of Craiglist was dismayed by the attitude to failure he found. “In Silicon Valley, failure is just a normal phase of one’s career” he commented on his blog. Contrast this with Europe where 57% of people would not invest money with someone who has failed in the past and 47% would be less inclined to buy goods from someone who had a blot on their business career.
These differences in attitude have a huge impact on the number of startups. At any one time around 10% of the US population are engaged in the process of setting up a business whereas the figure is around 4% in the UK and only 2% in France.
Innovation and entrepreneurship by their very nature require experimenting with new ideas, many of which will not be the hoped for success. Everyone fears failure, but innovation depends on it. A fear of failure can stifle the creative process in two ways.
Firstly, the stigmatisation of failure makes people reluctant to try new things. This can be a big problem in both new and established business as people will play safe and stick to the status quo causing stagnation.
Secondly, people who fear failure will persevere at a failing project too long. In his book, The Dip, marketing guru Seth Godin argues that successful people fail early and fail often. The secret is to learn from the experience and ensure that the next project does not make the same mistakes. Alongside the learning experience that failure can bring, it also pushes us out of our comfort zone and forces us to do new things.
After getting fired or made redundant, you may not know what you will do next, but one thing is for certain, if will be different and you will have to improvise. The experience can either be a crushing blow or exciting opportunity.
In 2008 J K Rowling, author of the ubiquitous Harry Potter novels, gave a speech to Harvard Graduates entitled ‘The Fringe Benefits of Failure’. Before becoming a world famous novelist, Rowling suffered a series of setbacks. Looking back now, she feels that her failures allowed her to strip away the inessential and concentrate on the one thing she was good at, writing.
In her speech she said:
Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing examinations. Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way… …The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive.
I believe that Rowling is onto something here. I often tell my friends that their problem is that they haven’t failed enough in their careers and consequently are stuck in dreary but well paid positions. A few failures along the way might have freed them from the fear of the unknown and given them the permission they needed to think big.
Before launching his online retailing business, Hello Baby, Trevor Ginn had more jobs than all of his friends put together. You can follow him on his blog and @trevorginn
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