An Insight In To Dealing With Failures
We have heard ‘failure is the stepping stone to success’ — Is it so? All the time?
Amazon’s Jeff Bezos points out that failures are broadly of two kinds — therefore to be dealt with differently.
1. Experimental failure — ‘When we are developing a new product or service or experimenting in some way, and it doesn’t work, that’s okay - that’s the kind of failure you should be happy with’, Bezos says. ‘These are the big, bold bets that move the needle’.
With the learning, it could become the stepping stone for success.
2. Operational failure — ‘We’ve built hundreds of fulfilment centers at Amazon over the years, and we know how to do that. If we build a new fulfilment center and it’s a disaster, that’s just bad execution. That’s not good failure,’ Bezos explains.
If we fail in something that we already know / should know how to do, that’s not something to celebrate.
‘Failure is the stepping stone to success’ — not quite so, all the time…
Distinguishing the kind of failure may provide us with the insights as to how to deal with them.
#ceo #leadership #scaleup
