Failure & Mistakes
Learning from failure, mistakes, and losses.
So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me.
Verified sourceThe Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination · Watch at 11:41 · Harvard Gazette
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And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.
Verified sourceThe Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination · Watch at 12:24 · Harvard Gazette
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It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.
Verified sourceThe Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination · Watch at 12:37 · Harvard Gazette
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Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing examinations.
Verified sourceThe Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination · Watch at 12:51 · Harvard Gazette
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I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.
Verified source2005 Stanford Commencement Address · Watch at 6:55 · Steve Jobs Archive on YouTube
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And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started?
Verified source2005 Stanford Commencement Address · Watch at 5:44 · Steve Jobs Archive on YouTube
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Success breeds complacency. Complacency breeds failure. Only the paranoid survive.
SourceAttributed to Andrew S. Grove in · via Wikiquote
Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.
SourceBusiness @ The Speed of Thought (1999) · via Wikiquote
Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose.
SourceThe Road Ahead (1995) · via Wikiquote
Once we realize that imperfect understanding is the human condition there is no shame in being wrong, only in failing to correct our mistakes.
SourceSoros on Soros (1995) · via Wikiquote
The people currently in charge have forgotten the first principle of an open society, namely that we may be wrong and that there has to be free discussion. That it's possible to be opposed to the policies without being unpatriotic.
SourceInterview with David Brancaccio (2003) · via Wikiquote
It is with pleasure I receive reproof, when reproof is due, because no person can be readier to accuse me, than I am to acknowledge an error, when I am guilty of one; nor more desirous of atoning for a crime, when I am sensible of having committed it.
SourceLetter to Governor Dinwiddie, Aug. 27, 1757 · National Archives on Founders Online
I can bear to hear of imputed or real errors. The man who wishes to stand well in the opinion of others must do this; because he is thereby enabled to correct his faults, or remove prejudices which are imbibed against him.
SourceLetter to Joseph Reed, Jan. 14, 1776 · Mount Vernon Ladies' Association on George Washington's Mount Vernon
...it is better to offer no excuse than a bad one.
SourceFrom George Washington to Harriot Washington · National Archives on Founders Online
I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can't accept not trying.
SourceJordan, Michael. I Can't Accept Not Trying · via Wikiquote
I've failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.
SourceAs quoted in Nike Culture: The Sign of the Swoosh (1998), by Robert Goldman and Stephen Papson, p. 49 · via Wikiquote
One thing is certain in business. You and everyone around you will make mistakes.
SourceFrom Richard Branson's blog ‘Learning from mistakes’ on the Virgin Website · via Wikiquote
When I think about my career, my successes are built on learning from failures.
SourceBoy Genius Report: "When I think about my career, my successes are built on learning from failures: Microsoft CEO Satya… · via Wikiquote
Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.
SourceQuoted in Steve Jobs, the Journey Is the Reward (1988) by Jeffrey S. Young · via Wikiquote
Just because something doesn't do what you planned it to do doesn't mean it's useless.
SourceAs quoted in Artifacts: An Archaeologist's Year in Silicon Valley (2001) by Christine Finn. p. 90 · via Wikiquote
War is mainly a catalogue of blunders.
SourceOn the Soviet Union's failure to form a united Balkan front against Hitler; in The Second World War, Volume III · via Wikiquote
In the course of my life, I have often had to eat my words, and I must confess that I have always found it a wholesome diet.
SourceQuoted by Lord Normanbrook in Action This Day: Working With Churchill. Memoirs by Lord Norman Brook (And Others) (1968) · via Wikiquote
My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.
It's fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.
The year I was born, 1955, the first big disease-eradication program in the world was declared for malaria. After about a decade of work, they realized that, at least in the tropical areas, they did not have the tools to get it done.
There's a silly notion that failure's not an option at NASA. Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.
If you look at space companies, they've failed either because they've had a technical solution where success was not a possible outcome, they were unable to attract a critical mass of talent, or they just ran out of money. The finish line is usually a lot further away than you think.
I have made the mistaken assumption - and I will attempt to be better at this - of thinking that because somebody is on Twitter and is attacking me that it is open season. And that is my mistake.
The space shuttle was often used as an example of why you shouldn't even attempt to make something reusable. But one failed experiment does not invalidate the greater goal. If that was the case, we'd never have had the light bulb.
Throughout the 19th century, when there was a laissez-faire mentality and insufficient regulation, you had one crisis after another. Each crisis brought about some reform. That is how central banking developed.
Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.
Life is a series of experiences, each one of which makes us bigger, even though sometimes it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the setbacks and grieves which we endure help us in our marching onward.
Even a mistake may turn out to be the one thing necessary to a worthwhile achievement.
I call Alibaba '1,001 mistakes.' We expanded too fast, and then in the dot-com bubble, we had to have layoffs. By 2002, we had only enough cash to survive for 18 months. We had a lot of free members using our site, and we didn't know how we'd make money. So we developed a product for China exporters to meet U.S. buyers online. This model saved us.
There's an examination for young people to go to university. I failed it three times. I failed a lot. So I applied to 30 different jobs and got rejected. I went for a job with the police; they said, 'You're no good.' I even went to KFC when it came to my city. Twenty-four people went for the job. Twenty-three were accepted.
I flunked my exam for university two times before I was accepted by what was considered my city's worst university, Hangzhou Teachers University. I was studying to be a high school English teacher. In my university, I was elected student chairman and later became chairman of the city's Students Federation.
I don't think that you can invent on behalf of customers unless you're willing to think long-term, because a lot of invention doesn't work. If you're going to invent, it means you're going to experiment, and if you're going to experiment, you're going to fail, and if you're going to fail, you have to think long term.
You have to be able to accept failure to get better.
You can't be afraid to fail. It's the only way you succeed - you're not gonna succeed all the time, and I know that.
You know, when I have a bad game, it continues to humble me and know that, you know, you still have work to do and you still have a lot of people to impress.
Sometimes in the past when I played something might make me lose focus, or I would go home after a game where I thought I could have played better and I would let it hang over my head for a long time when it shouldn't.
I love being challenged and defending my positions and, when I'm wrong, learning from the exchange. It makes me smarter and better as a businessperson.
If you can't admit a failure, you're not an entrepreneur. You are not a good business person. There's nothing brilliant about what you are doing.
In retrospect, I do think it's fair to say that we were overly idealistic and focused on more of the good parts of what connecting people and giving people a voice can bring.
The biggest mistake we made as a company was betting too much on HTML5.
One of my big regrets is that Facebook hasn't had a major chance to shape the mobile operating system ecosystem.
I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.
I've never been afraid to fail.
I never looked at the consequences of missing a big shot... when you think about the consequences you always think of a negative result.
Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another steppingstone to greatness.
Being human means you will make mistakes. And you will make mistakes, because failure is God's way of moving you in another direction.
I don't believe in failure. It is not failure if you enjoyed the process.
If you're constantly pushing yourself higher, higher, the law of averages - not to mention the myth of Icarus - predicts that you will at some point fall. And when you do, I want you to know this, remember this: There is no such thing as failure.
I had become so accustomed to succeeding that I no longer even remembered what it was like to fail.
Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again.
You don't learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over.
My attitude has always been, if you fall flat on your face, at least you're moving forward. All you have to do is get back up and try again.
Treat failure as a lesson on how not to approach achieving a goal, and then use that learning to improve your chances of success when you try again. Failure is only the end if you decide to stop.
Every successful businessman will have experienced set-backs and failures - they're lying if they say they haven't. Virgin has had some tremendously successful businesses and some that have not quite worked out. Virgin Cola springs to mind - the product wasn't distinct enough from Coca-Cola.
I'm not the sort of person who gives up on things. The first time we crossed the Atlantic in the balloon, it crashed, and we went on and did the Pacific. First time we crossed the Atlantic in a boat, it sank, and we went on and got the record. So, generally speaking, we will pick ourselves up, brush ourselves down, and carry on.
I nearly failed when Virgin was in its infancy; I nearly failed in the early 1980s, and, of course, I have nearly died more than once trying to achieve a world record for boating or ballooning. But through a combination of luck and planning, both Virgin and I are still here.
In our business, things look like a failure until they're not. It's pretty binary transitions.
I think we would be dead and gone if we were just mostly failing.
What gets lost is we wouldn't be who we are and as successful as we have been if we didn't have a decent batting average.
It's not about the failure, it's about learning from the failures. Failure itself cannot be celebrated.
If anything, you know, I think losing makes me even more motivated.
I decided I can't pay a person to rewind time, so I may as well get over it.
In college, a loss is pretty devastating. That feeling kind of goes away in an 82-game season. You hate to lose, but you also have a lot more games to make up for it.
Well, Apple invented the PC as we know it, and then it invented the graphical user interface as we know it eight years later (with the introduction of the Mac). But then, the company had a decade in which it took a nap.
I even get inspired by movies that aren't very good, because there's always something good in movies that are collectively thought of as a failure. There's good in everything, I find.
Results! Why, man, I have gotten a lot of results. I know several thousand things that won't work.
If you look at iPod, iPod wasn't viewed as a success, but today it's viewed as an overnight success. The iPhone was the same way. People were writing about there's no physical keyboard. Obviously nobody would want it.
We have never said that we're perfect. We've said that we seek that. But we sometimes fall short.
The most important thing is, Do you have the courage to admit that you're wrong? And do you change? The most important thing to me as a CEO is that we keep the courage.
You never get over losses. I've never gotten over one loss I've had in my career. They always stick with me.
I have a memory, and I can just eliminate mistakes when they come up because I've already made them.
You can't score if you're turning it over. It's like a punt. If you go out and you punt 12 times, you're not scoring points. That's not good. So, when you turn the ball over and throw interceptions, you're giving the other team more opportunities and your team less opportunities.
There are times when you throw an interception and you're beating yourself up.
Do I make mistakes? Yeah.
I disagree with people who think you learn more from getting beat up than you do from winning.
Show me a good loser, and I'll show you a loser.
The greatest accomplishment is not in never falling, but in rising again after you fall.
If you can accept losing, you can't win.
If you can shrug off a loss, you can't be a winner.
I bought a company in the mid-'90s called Dexter Shoe and paid $400 million for it. And it went to zero. And I gave about $400 million worth of Berkshire stock, which is probably now worth $400 billion. But I've made lots of dumb decisions. That's part of the game.
I have never developed indigestion from eating my words.
Eating words has never given me indigestion.
Quotes without a listed source are commonly attributed to the speaker. We add sources as we confirm them. How we source quotes
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