Why failing is bad

It turns out that having 2 out of 3 is enough to tempt teams into thinking that success is right around the corner. We like to call these Zombie Projects. Being able to recognize the potential for bad failure is the first step. By understanding whether their Desirability, Feasibility, or Viability is deficient, teams can access the correct toolbox of resources available to shore up and address their shortcomings.

Instead take a step back, honestly assess which element is causing the current failure, and then find the right path forward. We bring you stories, insights, and ideas to help you and your business grow. Sign in. Most Recommended Editor's Choice. There is Good Failure and Bad Failure. William Treseder Follow. Startup Tech Failure Entrepreneurship Leadership. Written by William Treseder Follow.

More From Medium. Top 5 Magazines for Technology Startups. Survive and Thrive , from the lenses of an Art Social Enterprise. Ihitashri Shandilya. Seven Steps to a Succession Plan. This is not a success story or learning experience, laying off 60, people is a collapse. Your people are your businesses lifeblood. Creating a safe environment where people have job security should be a priority.

Every time you close up shop you lose some of your most crucial asset: time. You have a very limited amount of time on this planet, and stacking up the losses is not a good way to spend it. Time is precious, and if you're going to fail in business, you should do it fast. This saves you from investing years of your life into something that will never have two legs to stand on.

Losing investors money is a great way to make further raising a challenge. If someone or some firm has lost money with you, they will be less likely to invest in your next venture. The more failures you stack up, the harder it will become. Remember, investors, whether they're your family or VCs want to see a return.

Lastly the demand for an error free design also contains a kind of arrogance that just our rationality is capable of. And to the error free design you would most probably only get by fixing a lot of mistakes. The last point in this is that error free is inhumane. I would never demand it from anyone. What I demand from my people is that they learn from failures and do not repeat them.

I do not punish anyone for a one time mistake no matter how stupid. But I do not tolerate ignorance and repeated carelessness. Obviously there are areas where it is important to take all possible steps to avoid failure to reduce human loss of any kind.

But still, Space Shuttles exploded and commercial planes crash and thousand of people die each day in traffic.

But with all we learned it is a lot less than it used to be. Failure taught us that. But I agree that it is strange that the country from which language the word TSUNAMI stems, had nuclear power plants that were never verified to withstand one.

That is the kind of failure that should not even happen once. They still will …. I see the problem as being the endemic risk-averse world of the vast majority of businesses, especially our largest. This is completely untenable to the small-minded, but hopefully that describes someone else, preferably our competition. Count me also as one who disagrees with your overall position.

Learning requires experimentation, and experimentation necessarily requires trying approaches that do not succeed … they fail. Luckily, human being are intelligent and learn. Failure is really not as bad as it is made out to be, and the benefits of failure include learning what not to do. So, in this sense, the learning makes failure worthwhile.

In a very real sense, the only think we have to fear is fear itself. Failure should never be part of any goal on any endeavor, it should be avoided but it should not stop progress. I think success at all cost is what really is damaging our society.