One of the big challenges with doing innovation in any setting is that most people are afraid of failure, and when you’re afraid to fail, you don’t take the risks that are necessary to keep creating and innovating.
Most professionals have had the idea that “failure is bad”, “failure is not acceptable”, or “failure is final” drilled into them through 16 years of schooling by the time they enter the workforce. We take tests in school and only get one shot to get it right, which is not usually how it works in the real world.
Recognition of this disconnect has led to a sort of “counter-cultural movement” among entrepreneurs of celebrating failure. While I understand how we got here, I think it’s an over-correction. We’re trying to balance one extreme out with another.
The problem with celebrating failure is that, unless you’re learning something, it’s still just failure.
We need to stop celebrating failure indiscriminately, and instead celebrate the learning that can come out of failure (and sometimes out of other things). Failure might be a necessary cost, but it’s the learning that helps us improve our creations and make the next ones better.