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Automotive Industry

Moving beyond failure - WIP - Brief Article

Automotive Design & Production, May, 2002 by Gary S. Vasilash

If failure weren't a seven-letter word, it would be a Four-letter word. It is something to be avoided in polite society: You just don't talk about it. And God forbid that you actually do it. Most of us have learned the concept that "Failure is not an option." Somehow, to fail is to be painted with a brush that leaves us irrevocably blemished. So we do what we can to avoid failure.

Which, Charles C. Manz argues in The Power of Failure: 27 Ways to Turn Life's Setbacks into Success [Berrett-Koehler; $14.95; 148 pp.], is wrong. As in:

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* "Taking on new challenges, stretching ourselves and growing as people, and learning significant new skills, can only be achieved with a good dose of failure along the way. Not failure that is final or sought for its own sake but failure that is a natural part of trying and learning new and challenging activities."

* "...setbacks are an unavoidable part of everyday life. We all fail. And not just a little but a lot, especially if we are taking risks and pursuing the learning of new skills that enable us to meet exciting and worthwhile challenges."

Of course, note that Manz is talking about taking on bath challenges and risks, about both growing and learning. All too often, people tend not to try to do those things because they are chancy and consequently can lead us to failure. It is one thing to gamble a few bucks at a casino; it is another thing entirely to try to do something in our job in a new way.

To succeed, you must first fail. That's pretty much the way it works. To keep one's head down, to hope that you won't be noticed and that you'll stay safe is analogous to the ostrich with its head in the sand.

Manz quotes Soichiro Honda, founder of the company that is known for best-selling automobiles and engines, "To me success can only be achieved through repeated failure and introspection." People at companies who don't understand that end up failing more than they succeed, even though they pretend that they are playing it safe.

Automotive Industry

Moving beyond failure - WIP - Brief Article

Automotive Design & Production, May, 2002 by Gary S. Vasilash

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