Want to succeed? Try failing

Cue a rebutting (but not admitting that's what it is) 37signals blog post in 5.. 4.. 3..

Seriously, though, I think the message is more that you should take bigger risks and push yourself further into an area where failure is quite likely.. rather than to merely try to fail ;-)

Sorry I may be too dense. But, what is the point of failure, if not to learn a lesson and succeed eventually. He seems to be saying the only time he did not fail (he got a raise) was when he did not enjoy the experience, it was too incremental. So, we should keep failing, and failing. Yes, I am missing the message. This may be acceptable for an academician. But is it acceptable for a businessman. After all he mentions that you feel the disappointment of 250 people and families that depended on you. Are you supposed to make it a habit and enjoy it.

Again, probably, since this is only a segment from the interview, I am not getting the full message.

“The knack of flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss” - Douglas Adams, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

I really don't like this headline. You'll never learn anything if you try to fail. Failure should not be a goal.

You are very probably going to fail at some point. It's important not to let the fear of failure prevent you from acting in the first place, and it's important to be able to deal with, accept, and learn from failure.

I recall this translation of Singapore-Chinese slang: scared to lose (ke-ya su, phonetically)

Startups are experimentation, and as in science, most experiments are "failures" (quoted, because both positive and negative results of an experiment give you information... if it's well-designed).

Read his book "The monk and the riddle". I promise you it will mean a lot and quite possibly change your life.

It's about the 150th article to appear on this particular theme here.