The Value of Failure
Adopting a "fail fast" mentality is nerve-wracking and just plain scary. But one thing I have learned is. Tenacity is a good quality to have for a small business owner.
And "You don't know until you know" is a good rule to follow. Only by actually doing the work can you get to the realm of mastery.
I’ve been listening to Seth Godin - He has a new book out called "The Practice- Shipping Creative Work" and being the big Godin fan that I am I love a mentor that walks the walk. He talks a lot about failure and is fearless when it comes to what he will do to test that concept.
The Practice is a difficult book to listen to and in this digital age my first impression - I wish I bought a hard copy.
It is 3+ hours of one-line antidotes, concepts, Ideas, and statements.
And after 5 minutes I’m saturated.
In this digital age was this a success or failure?
Or is it time to change my digital listening habits and once again Godin is on the cutting edge and ahead of the game? Should this book listening be a daily practice? Or is note-taking required?
So I’ve decided.
I trust Godin's insights enough to question my first impression and give it time to run through its course. Seth Godin’s entire career has been 1 to 10 steps ahead of the pack in marketing but not without tripping, and he has failed big. Listening to him talk he has embraced the many little deaths of creativity and it is now a part of his process.
Time to gear up for my process of consuming something new.
This is a question we all have to answer again and again every day. My Being in cutting-edge online marketing is probably more than most. But I chose this occupation and the quest of learning the unknown is what makes me get out of bed every day.
The Process
What is this new thing and will it poison me or nourish me?
The only way to find out is to try it. And that takes courage to create a process to mitigate failure on the path to success. Our ancestors watched nature, then studied it further, leading to the taste test, and if that went well it was time for a bite.
The successful taste-testing ancestors that we have evolved from had the patience to take one bite and wait a day or two for the results. They stuck to a process that taught them how to fail without catastrophic consequences.
The ones that gulped down the entire root had a fifty/fifty chance of actually becoming an ancestor.
Tell me, who on earth was the first to consume an artichoke?
Wow, that kind of curiosity was made for the likes of Galileo, Marie Curie, and Steve Jobs.
I give thanks every spring to that foodie adventurer extraordinaire. Artichoke Season is around the corner and I'm dippin' in!
So…
As our world keeps spinning and we are at yet another crossroad it’s time to find the path which has grown over with the weeds of stagnation. In 2020 we were forced into change, and again, in 2021 we were held in a holding pattern figuring it all out and languishing because of it.
It is now 2022 and it’s time to, absorb the failures, build on our successes, and move ahead. Think about what the current changes really mean to your business and start cutting away the weeds, laying down some stone, and building a clear path to prosperity.
“One foot in front of the other.
Repeat as often as necessary to finish.”
— Haruki Murakami
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