Thursday, March 22, 2012

The Virtue of Failure

Here is a helpful career tip from my favorite marketing guru Seth Godin

Too many MBAs are sent into the world with bravado and enthusiasm and confidence.

The problem is that they also lack guts.

Guts is the willingness to lose. To be proven wrong, or to fail.

No one taught them guts in school. So much money at stake, so much focus on the numbers and on moving up the ladder, it never occurs to anyone to talk about the value of failure, of smart risk, of taking a leap when there are no guarantees.

Well tolerance of failure is a trait dovetailed for market economies.

In socialist countries anyone’s willingness to lose would have been substituted for dependence on the state.

That’s why productivity and innovation is hampered. People have not been motivated to take risks. Losses are perceived as stigma. Regimented conformity displaces competitive thinking.

Also as emphasized by Mr. Godin, gut is a character that is hardly learned from school.

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