Avoidance vs. Mistakes vs. Experiments
Where I grew up it was all about avoiding mistakes and failures. Everything and everyone seem to have told you: “Plan ahead, don’t do something stupid. Don’t make a mistake, it will look bad on you.”
Later in life I came across the mentality of making mistakes, plenty of mistakes, the more the better. Best known as Silicon Valley’s “Fail Fast” mantra: Fail, move forward and fail again. Learn from it. One of my favourite saying for a while was “It’s only a mistake if you don’t learn from it”. I believed in it.
Mistakes and failures – could it be a good thing?
But does everything need to be a mistake? I think I like the approach of experiments better. Do lots of experiments, small ones and big ones: Test which website converts better. Test what works better in a business pitch. Test out where you like living. Try things in a controlled way.
Do experiments instead of mistakes
- First of all, it does not sound as negative as failing or making a mistake.
- Secondly, it’s controlled. You are in control and any outcome is a good one because it’s an answer.
Founder ?and investor ?
Environmentalist ? and futurist ?
Here I think out loud and talk about things. Opinions are my own but happy to share.