Success by Failing Quickly

Fail Quickly photo

Image courtesty of istockphoto/ZargonDesign

One of the biggest problems in business isn’t failure.  It’s failing too slowly.

The biggest failure of all is never failing at all.  If you never fail, you are playing it too safe.  You are taking zero risk.  A culture with a fear of failure is a culture doomed tofailure.  Others in the marketplace will pass you by, and it may be too late by the time you realize it.

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The biggest failure of all is never failing at all. -Skip Prichard

Failing quickly is much better than failing slowly.  Have you ever been in a business and known something was going to fail?  For whatever reason, the project marches onward.  Meanwhile, everyone who touches it knows the project is doomed.  Yet on it goes, sometimes for years.  I’ve seen some huge, expensive projects continue when, if someone would just do a reality check, the decision to kill it would be obvious.

You might say, “Wait a minute, Skip, no one would watch something fail like that.”  Sorry, it’s true, and I bet it is happening around you.  It’s a rare person and a rare culture where you can shout, “Yes!  I just figured out that this is doomed!  Awesome!”

Now, I’m not talking about the doom and gloom crowd.  There’s always someone who will shoot down new ideas before they even have a chance to succeed.  You need the wisdom to determine that something has failed versus when it needs more time or resources.  That’s not always easy.  The trick is to create a safe environment where it’s okay to express your opinion, and then redefine the mission—or abandon it entirely.

Remember:  Failing is allowed.  Expected.  Maybe even celebrated.  Failing slowly is not.  It’s a symptom of a diseased culture or a lack of self-confidence.

Thomas Edison famously said “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”  That type of tenacity and focus is what you want to aim for.  If Edison had failed slowly, then failure is all we would have achieved.  By failing quickly, he reached success—and turned night into day.

 

How have you been able to use the idea of failing quickly? Do you have the confidence to declare when something has failed so you can look for another way? You can leave a comment by clicking here.
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  • http://jeremystatton.com/ Jeremy Statton

    One of our children was being evaluated for seizures. The process involves having her hooked up to a monitor for 23 hours to try and catch any abnormal brain activity. If we saw her doing something that we felt might be a seizure, we were asked to push a button. I quickly turned the exercise into a test. I didn’t want to push the button and be wrong, so I was very resistant to push it all. 

    The point is that I love to be right and hate to be wrong, but I agree with you that being wrong is a critical aspect of growing and learning and being closer to right than I was yesterday.

    • http://www.skipprichard.com/ Skip Prichard

      First, I’m sorry that you had to go through that with your daughter. Nothing scarier than anything with our kids! And what a way to think about this in a completely different way. Great illustration–and I hope she is doing great!

  • Flowmotion

    This post makes a great point :) Fail fast, move on fast – achieve better results fast. Well put :)

    • http://www.skipprichard.com/ Skip Prichard

       Thank you–failure is never permanent unless you choose to let it stop you.

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  • http://cherylwoodhouse.com/ Cheryl Woodhouse

    “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” – LOVE this! I try to fail quickly, fail often, and fail forward. It is only by recognizing and admitting what *isn’t* working that we can move on and try to figure out what WILL.Awesome post, awesome reminder, and awesome new quote for my office wall!

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  • Celeste Chittaphong

    You presented this idea a few years ago at a sales conference and I didn’t quite understand the concept because of the word “fail”.  From this article I do understand now and it is brilliant.  I used this philosophy in a decision I made today, and it led to peace of mind and the quick failure makes space  for a what could be a better alternative before going too far. Thanks!

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  • http://twitter.com/heatherlchr Heather Christian

    I was thinking about this today actually.  It occurs quite often with IT projects.  I agree that this happens in cultures where leaders are not allowed to fail.  I’ve been told that a project can’t be killed because the company has already spent too much on it.  What is really sad is not just the time and money that goes down the drain but the talent that companies lose.

    • http://www.skipprichard.com/ Skip Prichard

      It absolutely does happen with IT projects. I’ve pulled the plug on some gigantic ones. Not an easy thing for the organization to swallow, but so much better than continuing a failed project. Thanks for the comment.

  • http://www.skipprichard.com/ Skip Prichard

    George, I agree. It’s a challenge. I also think that if you don’t challenge it, you will end up unhappy because you will not have fulfilled your potential.

  • Steve Pate

    Your comments on the importance of handling failure properly reminds me of one of my dad’s quotes:  “If you fail, fail quickly–and learn from the failure.  If you rarely fail or never fail, then you aren’t trying hard enough.”

  • AndyWoods

    failing slowly- ” a symptom of a diseased culture or lack of self confidence”  A sobering statement that hit a bullseye for me and an absolutely empowering boost for my creativity.  thanks!

    • http://www.skipprichard.com/ Skip Prichard

      Andy, you have the spirit inside of you to keep searching until you succeed. I have no doubt you will continue on that path.

  • http://twitter.com/bennybaggott Benny Baggott

    My software development team utilizes Agile practices to ensure that we are working on the right things. Still, earlier this week a developer was frustrated when he had to abandon a feature that he was working on when it was discovered that it was not needed. Sure, it would have been better to have caught it before we started working on it, but at that point our clients really believed that it was needed.  My encouragement was for him to not look at the time wasted (read invested), but the time saved in working closely with the clients to determine that we could abandon the feature before it was completed.  It is a mindset change that takes time, but the time saved is absolute.

    • http://www.skipprichard.com/ Skip Prichard

      Benny, that’s a great example of this at work. Much worse would be to keep investing time in something that would be abandoned or neglected.