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Andy Graham is the founder of One
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Have a read, or – if you'd prefer to have a conversation – get in touch.
More thoughts here at Andy's site.
Have a read, or – if you'd prefer to have a conversation – get in touch.
More thoughts here at Andy's site.
Failure is not an option - it is essential
29/07/2010
Recession-proofing the marketing strategy
29/07/2010
29/07/2010
Recession-proofing the marketing strategy
29/07/2010
Failure is not an option - it is essential
Added 29 July 2010
If you are going to fail it pays to fail spectacularly. Failure itself has value and when truly glorious, failure brings with it equal success.
Would Scott have been more famous if he had succeeded in reaching the South Pole first? In the UK Scott is more remembered than Amundsen. Shackelton*, similarly enshrined, didn’t do too well either with his ship the Endurance sinking at the first ice flow. His failure to cross the southern continent was actually trumped by his success; to preserve the life of his men.
Who remembers the winner of the ski jump competition at the Calgary Olympics in 1988? We all know who came last. The competition that year entertained both the greatest ever winner Matt Nykanen** from Finland who won three golds in the competition and the greatest ever loser Eddie the Eagle*** and it was Eddie who was feted with a private jet and chat show celebrity status. By all accounts Eddie was both brave (with serious short sight and bottle-bottom glasses that steamed up so badly he couldn’t see. Every jump could have been his last - that took guts), and humble; an all round good bloke, a plasterer from Stroud who held both the British ski jumping and stunt jumping records and 9th in the world rankings of amateur speed skating (106 mph). Getting to the Olympics had been an overwhelming success and his failure was just success in disguise and the spirit is summed up by this reference from Wikipedia - At the closing ceremony the president of the Games singled him out for his contribution: "At this Games some competitors have won gold, some have broken records and one has even flown like an eagle." At that moment, 100,000 people in the stadium roared 'Eddie! Eddie!'. It was the first time in the history of the games that an individual athlete had been mentioned in the closing speech.
Which Apollo mission became a movie? Was it the Apollo 11 successful lunar landing? Nope it was the Apollo 13 mission that failed that made it to celluloid celebration. Apollo 13’s success was not landing on the moon it was getting the astronauts back to earth all in one piece.
If we suffer a failure, we can find a success within it if we redefine our terms of reference. Don’t indulge in failure, failure is not defeat because in every failure there is a success we just have to find it. It is a rule. Take heart. Look at your failures afresh and revaluate them for their success. The thing about failure is it means you had a go, you tried and to paraphrase the well known saying “…it is better to have tried and failed, than never to have tried at all.”
If you are going to fail, fail spectacularly! Avoid the wishy washy, half baked failure – an anonymous failure has no value what so ever. This is the kind of failure we fear and it is this fear we project to make the glorious failure enshrined by a few, into an outstanding success.
No. A great failure needs PR, a well marketed failure made visible becomes part of our urban myth and is celebrated. To be a successful failure gets you a big stage and fall off it! Climb to the heights and as Buzz Lightyear said if you can’t fly “… fall with style!”
As we project our desires on others success we project our anxieties on others failures. Celebrity adorns outstanding failure just as it kisses success. There is a small but significant caveat, a warning to those who are in pursuit of failure’s success; the celebrity of failure is enhanced by death. Colin Campbell’s failed water speed record in Bluebird was both sublime and fatal. It pays to try and not be a dead failure and miss out on failure’s rewards.
Vincent Van Gogh was singularly the most unsuccessful artist of his generation and the Van Gogh Museum is in effect a temple to failure. Before failing as an artist Vincent had already failed as art dealer, school teacher, and missionary and most significantly in relationships. Vincent couldn’t be anything. His self doubt drove him on. In Vincent’s own words in a letter to his brother Theo “I hope that the products of failure may be success.” Visitors to the museum indulge and gorge on the painter’s failure, a feeding frenzy of often misguided exaltation, not of the man’s work but his profound inadequacy which at some subliminal level touches there own so they can shudder and move on thankful that their failure is not as absolute as his. And yet they miss the point – their fear of failure is really just their fear of success.
Unlike his contemporaries; Cezanne, Matisse, Gauguin, et al Vincent was un-painterly and challenged every artistic convention - it wasn’t likeness or even impression, it was expression - which made his work profoundly unattractive to potential buyers and in his life he only ever sold one painting. Paradoxically it is this commercial failure that has made his catalogue one of the most complete and the museum is stuffed with his work.
As mentioned before, don’t be a dead failure. The sad part of the Vincent story is that the profound depth of his failure in life is balanced by the profound recognition his work has achieved in death. In 1987, one hundred years after it was painted Irises was sold to Alan Bond for $60 million.
To fail isn’t an option: it is essential. Success is always built in, we just have to find it and wait for it.
References
*Reference Harvard Gazette Shackelton was an Antarctic explorer who never got near the South Pole. A mariner whose ship sank miles from its destination in some of the world's most hostile seas.
Yet Ernest Shackleton and his ill-fated Antarctic expedition have much to teach modern business leaders, says Harvard Business School (HBS) Professor of Business Administration Nancy Koehn. She has created and taught a business case called "Leadership in Crisis: Ernest Shackleton and the Epic Voyage of the Endurance."
"How he did what he did is very instructive," says Koehn of the now celebrated explorer and leader of a heroic expedition that saw all 28 members survive despite several years of harsh conditions and devastating, potentially deadly, setbacks. "It has both inspirational lessons and things we don't want to do." It's this duality, she says, that makes Shackleton such a compelling case, knocking him off a mythologized pedestal and into the messy stew of humanity, where good and bad, success and failure coexist.
What's more, as movies and books have demonstrated in the past decade, the voyage of the ship Endurance makes for a grippingly good story.
It is 1914, the peak of Europe's fascination with polar exploration and the eve of Britain's involvement in World War I. Shackleton and a crew of 27 men set out to be the first to traverse Antarctica. They head south from South Georgia Island, a whaling outpost, despite warnings of pack ice, and within a month, the Endurance is frozen solid in ice. Although Antarctica is within sight, the ice floes carry the Endurance off course, away from land. Ten months later, in October 1915, the ship suffers irreparable damage by the massive ice floes and sinks; Shackleton and his crew abandon ship and camp on the ice. With his men's survival, not Antarctica, as his new goal, Shackleton mounts several failed rescue attempts, the last of which gets his crew to uninhabited Elephant Island. From there, in April 1916, he and five others travel in a lifeboat back to South Georgia Island, where they cross the uncharted interior to secure help at a whaling station. After several attempts and four months, they return to rescue the remaining 22 men, all of whom are alive.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
'Part of what the Shackleton story is about . . . is leading under moments of great uncertainty when the game is changing, and may change on a dime.'
- Nancy Koehn, HBS Professor of Business Administration
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
** Reference Wikipedia At the 1988 Calgary Olympics, Matt Nykanen ( Finland) produced the greatest performance in Olympic ski jumping history. Nykanen stormed the field to win the 70m and 90m events, then led Finland to the first-ever team gold and became the first ski jumper ever to collect three gold medals in one Olympics.
*** Reference Wikipedia Edwards was born in Cheltenham, England, and was working as a plasterer when he qualified, as the sole British applicant, for the 1988 Winter Olympics ski-jumping competition. He had previously represented Great Britain at the 1987 World Championships, and was ranked 55th in the world. Eddie began jumping under the watchful eye of Chuck Berghorn in Lake Placid NY, using his equipment though he had to wear six layers of socks to make the boots fit. Edwards was handicapped by his weight - at about 82 kg (181 lb), more than 9 kg (20 lb) heavier than the next heaviest competitor - and by his lack of financial support for training - he was totally self-funded. Another problem was that he was very short sighted, requiring him to wear his glasses at all times, even though when skiing they fogged to such an extent that he could not see. He finished last in both the 70 m and 90 m events. From the beginning, though, his legend was embroidered with falsehoods.
“ "They said I was afraid of heights. But I was doing 60 jumps a day then, which is hardly something someone who was afraid of heights would do." But he was afraid of jumping? "Of course I was. There was always a chance that my next jump would be my last. A big chance." ”
—The Guardian, 3 September 2007 [3]
However, his lack of success endeared him to people all across the globe. The worse he did, the more popular he became. He subsequently became a media celebrity and appeared on talk-shows around the world. The press nicknamed him "Mr. Magoo", and one Italian journalist called him a "ski dropper".[4]
The widespread attention that Edwards received in Calgary turned into a large embarrassment for the ski jumping establishment. Many athletes and officials felt that he was 'making a mockery' of the sport. Shortly after the Olympics finished, the entry requirements were greatly toughened, making it next to impossible for anyone to follow his example.
At the closing ceremony the president of the Games singled him out for his contribution: "At this Games some competitors have won gold, some have broken records and one has even flown like an eagle." At that moment, 100,000 people in the stadium roared 'Eddie! Eddie!'. It was the first time in the history of the games that an individual athlete had been mentioned in the closing speech.
Added 29 July 2010
If you are going to fail it pays to fail spectacularly. Failure itself has value and when truly glorious, failure brings with it equal success.
Would Scott have been more famous if he had succeeded in reaching the South Pole first? In the UK Scott is more remembered than Amundsen. Shackelton*, similarly enshrined, didn’t do too well either with his ship the Endurance sinking at the first ice flow. His failure to cross the southern continent was actually trumped by his success; to preserve the life of his men.
Who remembers the winner of the ski jump competition at the Calgary Olympics in 1988? We all know who came last. The competition that year entertained both the greatest ever winner Matt Nykanen** from Finland who won three golds in the competition and the greatest ever loser Eddie the Eagle*** and it was Eddie who was feted with a private jet and chat show celebrity status. By all accounts Eddie was both brave (with serious short sight and bottle-bottom glasses that steamed up so badly he couldn’t see. Every jump could have been his last - that took guts), and humble; an all round good bloke, a plasterer from Stroud who held both the British ski jumping and stunt jumping records and 9th in the world rankings of amateur speed skating (106 mph). Getting to the Olympics had been an overwhelming success and his failure was just success in disguise and the spirit is summed up by this reference from Wikipedia - At the closing ceremony the president of the Games singled him out for his contribution: "At this Games some competitors have won gold, some have broken records and one has even flown like an eagle." At that moment, 100,000 people in the stadium roared 'Eddie! Eddie!'. It was the first time in the history of the games that an individual athlete had been mentioned in the closing speech.
Which Apollo mission became a movie? Was it the Apollo 11 successful lunar landing? Nope it was the Apollo 13 mission that failed that made it to celluloid celebration. Apollo 13’s success was not landing on the moon it was getting the astronauts back to earth all in one piece.
If we suffer a failure, we can find a success within it if we redefine our terms of reference. Don’t indulge in failure, failure is not defeat because in every failure there is a success we just have to find it. It is a rule. Take heart. Look at your failures afresh and revaluate them for their success. The thing about failure is it means you had a go, you tried and to paraphrase the well known saying “…it is better to have tried and failed, than never to have tried at all.”
If you are going to fail, fail spectacularly! Avoid the wishy washy, half baked failure – an anonymous failure has no value what so ever. This is the kind of failure we fear and it is this fear we project to make the glorious failure enshrined by a few, into an outstanding success.
No. A great failure needs PR, a well marketed failure made visible becomes part of our urban myth and is celebrated. To be a successful failure gets you a big stage and fall off it! Climb to the heights and as Buzz Lightyear said if you can’t fly “… fall with style!”
As we project our desires on others success we project our anxieties on others failures. Celebrity adorns outstanding failure just as it kisses success. There is a small but significant caveat, a warning to those who are in pursuit of failure’s success; the celebrity of failure is enhanced by death. Colin Campbell’s failed water speed record in Bluebird was both sublime and fatal. It pays to try and not be a dead failure and miss out on failure’s rewards.
Vincent Van Gogh was singularly the most unsuccessful artist of his generation and the Van Gogh Museum is in effect a temple to failure. Before failing as an artist Vincent had already failed as art dealer, school teacher, and missionary and most significantly in relationships. Vincent couldn’t be anything. His self doubt drove him on. In Vincent’s own words in a letter to his brother Theo “I hope that the products of failure may be success.” Visitors to the museum indulge and gorge on the painter’s failure, a feeding frenzy of often misguided exaltation, not of the man’s work but his profound inadequacy which at some subliminal level touches there own so they can shudder and move on thankful that their failure is not as absolute as his. And yet they miss the point – their fear of failure is really just their fear of success.
Unlike his contemporaries; Cezanne, Matisse, Gauguin, et al Vincent was un-painterly and challenged every artistic convention - it wasn’t likeness or even impression, it was expression - which made his work profoundly unattractive to potential buyers and in his life he only ever sold one painting. Paradoxically it is this commercial failure that has made his catalogue one of the most complete and the museum is stuffed with his work.
As mentioned before, don’t be a dead failure. The sad part of the Vincent story is that the profound depth of his failure in life is balanced by the profound recognition his work has achieved in death. In 1987, one hundred years after it was painted Irises was sold to Alan Bond for $60 million.
To fail isn’t an option: it is essential. Success is always built in, we just have to find it and wait for it.
References
*Reference Harvard Gazette Shackelton was an Antarctic explorer who never got near the South Pole. A mariner whose ship sank miles from its destination in some of the world's most hostile seas.
Yet Ernest Shackleton and his ill-fated Antarctic expedition have much to teach modern business leaders, says Harvard Business School (HBS) Professor of Business Administration Nancy Koehn. She has created and taught a business case called "Leadership in Crisis: Ernest Shackleton and the Epic Voyage of the Endurance."
"How he did what he did is very instructive," says Koehn of the now celebrated explorer and leader of a heroic expedition that saw all 28 members survive despite several years of harsh conditions and devastating, potentially deadly, setbacks. "It has both inspirational lessons and things we don't want to do." It's this duality, she says, that makes Shackleton such a compelling case, knocking him off a mythologized pedestal and into the messy stew of humanity, where good and bad, success and failure coexist.
What's more, as movies and books have demonstrated in the past decade, the voyage of the ship Endurance makes for a grippingly good story.
It is 1914, the peak of Europe's fascination with polar exploration and the eve of Britain's involvement in World War I. Shackleton and a crew of 27 men set out to be the first to traverse Antarctica. They head south from South Georgia Island, a whaling outpost, despite warnings of pack ice, and within a month, the Endurance is frozen solid in ice. Although Antarctica is within sight, the ice floes carry the Endurance off course, away from land. Ten months later, in October 1915, the ship suffers irreparable damage by the massive ice floes and sinks; Shackleton and his crew abandon ship and camp on the ice. With his men's survival, not Antarctica, as his new goal, Shackleton mounts several failed rescue attempts, the last of which gets his crew to uninhabited Elephant Island. From there, in April 1916, he and five others travel in a lifeboat back to South Georgia Island, where they cross the uncharted interior to secure help at a whaling station. After several attempts and four months, they return to rescue the remaining 22 men, all of whom are alive.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
'Part of what the Shackleton story is about . . . is leading under moments of great uncertainty when the game is changing, and may change on a dime.'
- Nancy Koehn, HBS Professor of Business Administration
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
** Reference Wikipedia At the 1988 Calgary Olympics, Matt Nykanen ( Finland) produced the greatest performance in Olympic ski jumping history. Nykanen stormed the field to win the 70m and 90m events, then led Finland to the first-ever team gold and became the first ski jumper ever to collect three gold medals in one Olympics.
*** Reference Wikipedia Edwards was born in Cheltenham, England, and was working as a plasterer when he qualified, as the sole British applicant, for the 1988 Winter Olympics ski-jumping competition. He had previously represented Great Britain at the 1987 World Championships, and was ranked 55th in the world. Eddie began jumping under the watchful eye of Chuck Berghorn in Lake Placid NY, using his equipment though he had to wear six layers of socks to make the boots fit. Edwards was handicapped by his weight - at about 82 kg (181 lb), more than 9 kg (20 lb) heavier than the next heaviest competitor - and by his lack of financial support for training - he was totally self-funded. Another problem was that he was very short sighted, requiring him to wear his glasses at all times, even though when skiing they fogged to such an extent that he could not see. He finished last in both the 70 m and 90 m events. From the beginning, though, his legend was embroidered with falsehoods.
“ "They said I was afraid of heights. But I was doing 60 jumps a day then, which is hardly something someone who was afraid of heights would do." But he was afraid of jumping? "Of course I was. There was always a chance that my next jump would be my last. A big chance." ”
—The Guardian, 3 September 2007 [3]
However, his lack of success endeared him to people all across the globe. The worse he did, the more popular he became. He subsequently became a media celebrity and appeared on talk-shows around the world. The press nicknamed him "Mr. Magoo", and one Italian journalist called him a "ski dropper".[4]
The widespread attention that Edwards received in Calgary turned into a large embarrassment for the ski jumping establishment. Many athletes and officials felt that he was 'making a mockery' of the sport. Shortly after the Olympics finished, the entry requirements were greatly toughened, making it next to impossible for anyone to follow his example.
At the closing ceremony the president of the Games singled him out for his contribution: "At this Games some competitors have won gold, some have broken records and one has even flown like an eagle." At that moment, 100,000 people in the stadium roared 'Eddie! Eddie!'. It was the first time in the history of the games that an individual athlete had been mentioned in the closing speech.