Posts filed under ‘Risk Failing Well’
Good Judgement
Will Roger’s observation that,
“Good judgment comes from experience.
Experience comes from poor judgment,”
gives a very good reason to exercise the Fresh Ideas
strategy ‘Risk Failing Well.’
Light Sources
The next time you feel your creative mojo waning,
consider Leonard Cohen‘s illuminating take on
the Fresh Ideas strategy ‘Accentuate the Positive‘:
“Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack in everything.
That’s how the light gets in.”
Smart Failing
Smart Failing is an interesting site that focuses on becoming better at learning from failure – a great resource for those of us working to use the Fresh Ideas strategy “Risk Failing Well” more often.
A recent post pointed visitors to Gizmodo Eureka Innovation‘s stories of experiments, accidents and failures that led to innovation. For example:
“4. Play-Doh – Kutol Products
Before being found ground into the rugs of child-rearing homes everywhere, Play-Doh was ironically created to be a cleaning product. The paste was first marketed as a treatment for filthy wallpaper—before the company that produced it began to go down the tubes. The discovery that saved Kutol Products—headed for bankruptcy—wasn’t that their wall cleaner worked particularly well, but that schoolchildren were beginning to use it to create Christmas ornaments as arts and crafts projects. By removing the compound’s cleanser and adding colors and a fresh scent, Kutol spun their wallpaper saver into one of the most iconic toys of all time—and brought mega-success to a company headed for destruction. Sometimes, you don’t even know how brilliant you are until someone notices for you.”
Eight Superstars’ Best Mistakes
In this post from Wired Magazine, there are interesting stories of how eight superstars’ stumbles and missteps taught them
- not feel sorry for yourself, and the importance of listening. (Bill Clinton)
- how quickly perception can become reality. (Jason Kilar, CEO of Hulu)
- “…it’s never as bad (or as good) as it seems at the time.” (Nick Denton, founder of Gawker Media)
- to invest for the long term. (Meg Whitman, former CEO of EBay)
- the value of rapid prototyping. (Max Levchin, CEO of Slide)
and more. Excellent real-world reminders of the principles described in the complementary Fresh Ideas issue Risk Failing Well .
