Failure Enables New Products

“In order to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe.”

– Carl Sagan, astronomer

Many “wannabe” entrepreneurs struggle with the idea of coming up with the perfect product or solution. This obsession with being the best keeps them from launching the product. Instead, they stay sequestered in the pre-launch stage trying to perfect the concept by tweaking the product feature set.

Contrast this behavior to successful entrepreneurs who choose to launch their products and fail openly and often in front of God and country. For example, Thomas Edison pushed the envelope when it came to failure. He literally created thousands of filaments for his light bulb before he found one that had a sustainable life. He was undaunted by his repeated failures. He did not fear failure—he relished it since he knew that each time he failed he was one step closer to success.

This fearlessness is a key component of innovation. You can also argue that these reckless innovators are just plain uninformed about the prospect of failure or they don’t really care what people think. It is my contention that this “just do it” mind set works given the alternative of doing nothing.

My advice to entrepreneurs is to welcome failure by launching your products early. Failure is a catalyst for success.

John Bradley Jackson
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