The Right Kind of Failure

On the heels of Rob Thomas' motion picture history-making Kickstarter campaign, a note about the flipside of Kickstarter success from TechDirt:

It's easy to use the word "failure" for those projects that don't meet their goal. Hell, just in writing this post, I repeatedly had to consciously stop myself from using the words "fail" or "failure" in describing projects that don't reach their goal. But, the commenter is right: those projects are not failed projects once you realize what Kickstarter really is: a platform to judge the market for products, and to build commitment and funding around them.

Go read the whole thing.

"Failure" is a charged word with oodles of negative connotations.  That's unfortunate, because the right kind of failure can actually springboard us to success.  We hear about great artists and innovators who failed over and over, but who persevered until that 10,000th light bulb design worked, or that one publisher finally took a chance on a story about a boy wizard.

We fear failure, and thus refuse to take a risk.  "Nothing ventured, nothing gained," as the great artist and innovator Benjamin Franklin once said.

"Do not fear mistakes," he also said. "You will know failure. Continue to reach out."