When is “failure” truly failure? And when is it only one part of the learning process?
Recently I heard an interview with Astro Teller*, the current CEO of X (formerly known as Google X). In it, he talked about the culture of the company, and how their secret to success has been in how enthusiastically they embrace failure. They tackle big projects and immediately run at the hardest parts of these projects first. And incredibly, teams within the company that have to shut down their projects because they “failed” to accomplish them are actually given bonuses and recognition in the company. For them, “failing” isn’t something to avoid. Rather, it’s a necessary component to moving forward.
Teller’s perspective is that _real _failure only starts once you’ve determined that what you should no longer be doing what you’re currently doing. Once you know something isn’t going to work, then you have the choice to move on in a different direction. And the time spent to get there — to that place where you know what to do or not do — isn’t failure. It’s just part of the learning process. Real failure begins when you finally know what to do — or stop doing — and you still continue down the same path.
The challenge is when you change course based on what you’ve learned, it can feel like you’ve wasted a whole lot of time. You can feel like a failure. But sometimes all that time and experience was necessary to bring you to a place to actually understand what needs to be done now. And seen from that perspective, the time spent wasn’t wasted. That is, if you learn from it and make the necessary corrections.
Next time you have to make a major change — maybe it’s shutting down something you’ve worked hard on, or switching paths and going in a totally different direction — you have a choice in how you will view the time you’ve already spent. Will you view the time it took to get to that point as wasted? Or will you choose to see it all as part of the learning process?
- The audio interview on the linked page, not the video.