The only hand I remember getting at the Personal Democracy Forum was when I suggested that government must be granted the license to fail – and we’re the ones the grant it – so it can have the courage to innovate. The culture of government doesn’t allow failure, which means it won’t tolerate risk.
Now see Craig Newmark returning from the UK, seeing a larger culture of failurephobia there and the impact that has on innovation, technology, and business:
I was struck by the repeated comment that failure is stigmatized in UK business culture. In Silicon Valley, failure is just a normal phase of one’s career. You might succeed in your first endeavor, probably not, so you’re ready to persist in subsequent efforts…..
That’s generally true in Silicon Valley, maybe needs to be true in the UK and maybe everywhere else.
I’m thinking a lot about this lately: the need to risk and fail and not hold perfection as the standard of success.
