Zane Safrit

Fail.com

Interesting. I searched for the Fail blog. I typed in Fail.com and it directed me to Exponent.com. It's an engineering firm that talks about...failures.

Cool.

And on their home page are videos of failures and what was learned from them.

And they share:

Bernoulli’s Principle

As the speed of a moving fluid increases, the pressure within the fluid decreases.

And they share other cool laws of engineering and thermodynamics, like the law of conservation of momentum.

Why I like this site:

A.They promote failure as a learning exercise. (ok, even if it's someone else's...it's the group knowledge. Sharing it makes it less likely others will make the same mistake. The group and tribe increase their survival rate.)

B. They use videos to demonstrate.

C. I learned something with their "did you know" section.

Celebrating failure. You never know where you're going to find a party.

Oh, the failures, and learning, we can share

Harry McCracken's great guest post at Anita Campbell's SmallBiz Trends is titled Oh, the Tech Mistakes I've Made.

Kudos to Harry for sharing his mistakes and his failures. And what he learned, continues to learn, with each one.

As I read through his list of 5-6 mistakes...I see I'm in good company. I've made the same ones. But I don't know if I've learned as much. Consider: Working in Haste. I still do it. I still make the same mistakes when I do.

What should I do? Less caffeine or more? More would fire all cylinders. Less would fire all, but slower? More workouts or less?

My challenge is to be selective, be targeted, add value to the audience. I'm trying. Help me with your tips.

Here's Harry's profile as a fellow guest author at SmallBiz Trends.

Harry blogs on technology at Technologizer.

If you've never failed, you've never lived

Celebrating some great failures and their even greater accomplishments.

Honesty Always Hits the Jackpot

A former work colleague reached out to me last week.

And, his connection request left me scratching my head. I couldn't have been more surprised.

I use the term colleague loosely. We worked at the same company. But we never spoke except once in a meeting. And around town we never spoke to each other.

It's understandable we never spoke much at the company.  He was smart. PhD smart. PhD in Physics smart. Working in IT-development doing cool things on the internet back in the early 90's smart. I'm an art major.  I was in customer service and sales support. Much of that time I rode a bike around town as my primary mode of transportation. Winter, summer, rain or snow. We lived in different universes.

Even if we did speak to each other, I'm not sure we could have understood what the other was saying.  Seriously. I'm willing to bet one of us would have been impatient, if not offended, within a few sentences. Even if we'd said hello, using only that one word, we'd have missed what th other was saying.

None of this made us bad guys, really. I understood then, sorta (when I wasn't offended...from insecurity), and now why he never spoke. 

But, that made his connection request seem even odder.

I thought about it for a few days. Told my wife. ( Her insight, as it often is, was prescient. Maybe he's just shy or distracted?) Still, I pondered it a few more days. And then I decided to...just be honest.

I replied. I thanked him for his request. I re-told some of his accomplishments I'd witnessed and their huge impact on the company. Then I asked why. Why do you want to connect as we never spoke then, nor on the rare occasion I see him now. I said I'm happy to move forward, but, I'm still perplexed.

And if the sun rose in the west, I'm not sure I'd be more amazed than when I read his reply. He thanked me. He was looking to reach out and connect and he'd hit the jackpot in my reply. He said he knew sometimes he came across like that. He was working to change that. And he'd make sure we spoke when we saw each other in the future.

Holy smoke. That response made my day. Honestly, it made my week.

There's no way I can put in words what I felt with his reply. It would have been easy for him to blow it off, not reply or worse...wonder who this bike-ridin' guy was to question him or anything he'd done. That would have been his right.

But he didn't. And not only that, he was honest and open in more ways than...I certainly expected.

His response was a jackpot for me. Huge jackpot.

He reads this blog. I hope he reads this post.

True confession: I'd deleted him and his emails when I saw no reply after a few days. I figured...oh well, at least I saved time to focus on those who really want a conversation. I told him that in my reply to his note. That's one of those prove-me-wrong delights I enjoy.

Funny. Funny in a great, encouraging, way.

Honesty. It always works. But its rewards are greatest with those who can reciprocate.  It's with them that you hit the jackpot directly. The others, well, being honest just keeps them from interfering and it does a  favor for them, too: it points them towards people where they can be honest and find their own jackpot.

I wasn't sure how to categorize this post. I created ones called TIMING and HONESTY.  I added Celebrating failure. I don't see this as a failure so much as a great learning experience.

Getting Knocked Down May Be The Point

It's not whether you get knocked down, it's whether you get up. -- Vince Lombardi

You can't get up until you've been knocked down. And you can't go forward until you get back up.

So, start getting knocked down.

Quote from Franpro's tweet.

Fail More, Fail Faster: George Bernard Shaw

When I was young, I observed that nine out of 10 things I did were failures, so I did 10 times more work. George Bernard Shaw

Fail more, fail faster.

Link from Blindguy55's twitter post.

7 Ways You Can Almost Kill Your Business...+ 4 Ways to Avoid It

From Mike McDerment, CEO of Freshbooks, comes this post: 7 Ways I've Almost Killed Freshbooks.

It's a personal story. But the list, the 7 items, is universal for business leaders.

1. Thinking we had to move faster than we did

2. Placing my faith in a spreadsheet

It’s really easy to stare at a spreadsheet and say, “that’s it! I totally get this business…I understand how it all works and look at that year 5 revenue!”, when the reality is it will take 10 years to get there, cost you twice as much as you thought, and you’ll probably be running a totally different business by the time you get there. [LOL. Preachin' the truth now, Mike.]

3. Thinking we had to spend more than we did

4. Placing my faith in consultants

5. Underestimating word of mouth

...it’s a slow build, but slow burning fires burn the hottest. [ It's a sustainable fire...as long as it's feed steadily.]

6. Believing we could not get this far without doing “x”

7. Doubting ourselves too much

And how did Freshbooks avoid its demise at the hands of its visionary and honest CEO? Well...by listening to that same CEO, trusting his guidance, and he listening key employees and trusting their guidance.

I’ve often said, “were it not for Joe and Levi, I would have run this company into the ground long ago”. The fact is, truer words were seldom spoken

What did we learn today?

Well, if you want to avoid killing your business...still follow Mike's advice:

1) Be like Mike. Run fast. Make lots of mistakes. Learn fast. Grow faster as a result. Celebrate failure along the way.

2) Be open and honest with A. yourself; B. your team.

3) Find key employees whose wisdom and guidance and honesty you can trust. Listen to them. Trust them.

4) Stir and repeat. Daily.

"5 Tips to Celebrate Failure with Greater Frequency and Style"

Try to fail as often as possible but never make the same mistake twice.

Set a failure target as part of each employee's annual review.

If projects are a failure, kill them quickly and move on.

Create a failure database as part of knowledge management.

Set up annual failure awards. If this gets too successful, stop it.

From Richard Watson's post at Fast Company: Celebrate Failure.

I love number 2: Set a failure target as part of each employee's annual review.

Can you imagine the annual review, what it would be like, how different it would be if it included this section:

Your Failures...

Did you reach your target number?

What did you learn?

What did you contribute to our knowledge management? Or how did those failures benefit those around you?

THAT would be a different place to work.  My bet is, all things considered equal, it would be a growing company.

Forgiving and Failure

Friday's we celebrate failure and its role in creating success.

Yippee, skippee. The platitude sounds great, I think, somedays.

Let's get real. Let's get past platitudes.

What happens when my failure ruins your day? Or yours, mine? Someone's failure ruins someone's accomplishments that had been built on success to that point.

Then what happens? It's at that point that a failure becomes a stepping stone to success....or not.

That point is called the forgiveness point. 

Forgiving makes it possible for the next failure. Forgiving says "you clearly didn't create this outcome on purpose. So, let's step back, laugh a bit (ok, cry a bit or yell, let's be honest.) and figure out what went wrong, right and how to avoid the former."

That point, the forgiveness point, makes that next failure come quicker. Why? Well,  because you're working where you can fail. And it's not considered a failure. Neither are you.  And you both know you'll learn from it.

The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong. —Mahatma Gandhi (1869 - 1948)

He's right. You have to be VERY strong, very resilient, cery compassionate to forgive.

Yippee, skippee, again.

Sounds so simple. Like creating engaged employees. Everyone knows it's the right thing to do. So few of us, me included, do it well. (Why'm I'm writing this? Part processing, part catharsis, part reaching out to those who may be on the cusp of this step...this forgiveness step.)

I'm acquiring my skills on this forgiveness point. ( And frankly, I've given lots of learning opportunities to others...) It's tough. Very tough. For real forgiveness, not happy-face forgiveness, let's-will-ourselves-to-say-the-right-thing forgiveness. 

I started as a once-burned, twice-gone, personality. Now, I'm up to a thrice-burned...I'm hesitating person. The trick is finding the balance between forgiveness and recognition of an unsolvable situation, person.

And the vengeance...it's easing. Not out of love. It's easing because it's an all-consuming emotion, it's never productive, it's satisfaction is VERY temporary (though ...sweet) and what your left with is...very little.

My solutions right now for forgiveness are simple:

* Vent. It's healthy. Vent my anger. BUT, where and with whom it leaves no lasting impression. Venting at the source of my anger is a misnomer. The anger's in me. Their actions only triggered it.  I usually go outside or for a run or a long drive with  the music up loud.

* Avoid the source. Avoid the person(s) who provoked the anger until I'm stronger. Life doesn't always allow this timing. But...if possible. Regardless, the same situation will arise until I'm strong enough to deal. Trust me. You'll fail until you learn.

* Don't be seduced by anger's brilliance.  I've been seduced many times with my seeming brilliance when I'm angry. Not so. That's the lure of anger. Self-righteous, white-hot, mentally acute, but missing the bigger picture (always).

* Perspective. Get it.  I'm talking about assessing the situation, the persons involved, the outcome, everyone's motivation...and mine. That last one is most important: mine, my motivation, my role, my actions...Ultimately, I created the scenario where my own anger became an obstacle.

* Then Forgiveness comes naturally. It's real. It's healthy. I'm stronger for the next one.

There's a good read on Forgiveness and Failure at Innovative Brains, Walking The Forgiveness Path. It's where I found the quote. The post offers some 'fuel for forgiveness' and ways to not fuel vengeance. It's a good read...it stirred this confession.

Experience and Failure

2 quotes from BrandAutopsy's twitter feeds.

* Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted. — Randy Pausch

* Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes. — Oscar Wilde

Next week, BrandAutopsy's John Moore will be the guest on my BlogTalk Radio show. It's a special time, 9:30 AM Central on...Thursday. You can listen live or later at www.blogtalkradio.com/zane-safrit.

Hackable tollbooths: Complacency or Arrogance?

Or both.

From TechDirt: Security? What Security? Automatic Toll Systems and Passports Found Easily Hackable.

The 2 vices of success: complacency and arrogance

Complacency and Arrogance.

Complacency is where we think we're good enough, what we're doing is good enough. It's the domain of mediocrity, built quietly and complacently by ourselves. 

I've often found depressed (rage repressed) people live here. Some failures, many unacknowledged, lots of people to blame. At times, I've been their companion, their enabler too.

And they, mine.

I visit this domain and their company, relatively briefly now. I stumble in, get all comfortable and then realize the too-familiar surroundings and company. It takes me less time to get up and go, now.

And the second, Arrogance, arises from the confirmation of our greatness...in our own mind and by those whose own self-acknowledged greatness isn't disturbed by ours. It's a great community while reality eludes us.

I flipped on CNBC y'day evening. And there being interviewed was Donald Keough, former CEO of Coca-Cola. He talked about these two seedsd of future failures and how the crash of the sub-prime markets contained them and was a perfect illustration of how they grew. You can see the lack of regulatory and media oversight and the initial successes from this industry created the complacency. And then the arrogance came right after in the industry's sense of entitlement, their masters-of-the-universe complex, the attitudes that we're smarter than all-y'all...

Ooops.

He's also the author of Ten Commandments of Business Failure.

I happened to read about him yesterday afternoon at John Moore's Brand Autopsy blog. John's been Tweeting excerpts and insights from this book.

Super-tight and ultra pithy takeaways...are how he describes them. Anyone else said that about their own writing and I'd laugh. John's always honest and looking at his tweets (twexcerpts?) for this project...I'd agree. Super-tight and ultra pithy.

Back to vices...the seeds of our future failures are contained in our success. Without failures, the destruction of our successes, we're left being arrogant and complacent. And we've all been forced to eat dinner with folks like that (Thanksgiving dinner, ring a bell?). And sometimes it's been us...until reality intrudes and delivers our failures and lessons to be learned.

I'm gettin' all maudlin and sermony here. It's friday, summer, a beautiful day. Get out and enjoy it with your family. Enjoy your successes. Lessons are waiting to be delivered.

PS: Be sure to check out his post with the list of twexcerpts from Ten Commandments of Business Failure.

Failure leads to success

Cliche'? Absolutely. And there's a reason it's a cliche'. It's so true.

David Kam at Marketing Deviant covers this cliche' from another angle. Check out the first comment: great quote.

Doctor Failure

Steve Young is Doctor Failure. He's an expert on all things F-word related. F as in Failure...as in THE required predecessor for success and achievement. He says Failure is mankind's most ignored resource.

Doctor Failure celebrates the failures of those we consider success in his book titled Great Failures of the Extremely Successful. He profiles how:

...famous personalities like Jane Goodall, John Wooden, Erin Brockovich, Steve Allen, Michael Medved, Billy Idol, Garry Marshall and many others turned their most devastating failures into triumph and lifetime fulfilment.

I'm going to read the book for the specifics of how each person profiled turned failure into triumph and fulfillment. But at the same time, I'm betting that one universal trait among them was they all picked themselves up and renewed their efforts. I've read where the only failure is the one who stops trying.

His celebration of their failures, he shares his also, helps us all see that failure is a universal component on the way to success. We overlook it too even when it's right in front of us:

* A baseball player is a legend if he fails to get a hit only 60% of the time; he's a star if that number is only 70%.

* A scientist is a legend with one or two discoveries in his life from the hundreds of thousands of failed experiments and paths of research.

* A star is crowned in the NBA when a player misses less than 40% of his shots from under 4-feet away from the basket.

I don't share my failures in a public venue. Maybe, I fear the repitition will bore you. Maybe, I'd never get to talk about anything else.

But as I've grown older and balder, I've grown more comfortable acknowledging, even celebrating my failures. That first part, acknowledging them, starts with myself. And, over the years, I've found a group of confidantes with whom I can share my failures or stumbles. They're people with great achievements, so they're experts at failure. That's cultured in them, in us, a growing compassion and patience for failure and a respect for those willing to ask for help.

I'm going upstream right now, in a strong current of failures and learning. I'm starting a new endeavor, a new business.

As expected, except by me, I hit the proverbial wall. After the inspiration and ideation and some progress I ran into the wall of my own limits. After realizing that banging my head on the wall, all 4 of them, was the source of my headache...I reached out for help.

It was scary. It was humbling. But it was also liberating in some ways.

If any or all that I'd asked had answered no, get a life, loser...well that would have stopped the pinging in my head, at least. The self-esteem would be tender. But that too would pass and I'd be free to learn what brought me to this point, make sure never to return and look at other options and ideas.

But all said Yes. And that means I'm destined to continue to swim upstream, at a faster pace through the obstacles and learning ops and failures, but with a great crew to push and pull, lookout for me.

And that means...I'll have some failures to share here...as a precursor for some great success with some great folks. I'll share it with my friends I've met, my loyal readers and commenters and strangers (friends I haven't met yet*.) Stay tuned. My first Advisory Board meeting is tomorrow. And I've got work to do.

So, the headaches have been replaced with sense of elation. I'm enjoying its respite...for now.

* A stranger is a friend you haven't met, yet. That was the message for the day one morning in 1969 at Kiser Junior High School in Greensboro, NC. It was read over the intercom by someone who sounded as awkward and miserable as I was then at 14. I laughed that day in the days after. But it stuck, I finally got it and slowly I realized whoever read that message had a lot of courage, more than I did then.

Thinking about it now, it's much like online social media. You have some brave people pushing through varying phases of awkwardness with technology or their passions and dreams and failures, openly and honestly sharing them for others to connect with in hopes they help someone somewhere.  One difference, that person in junior high was anonymous to most of us then. Here in online social media, there's a lot more transparency...accountability, identity. Your mistakes and successes are out there for everyone to see. So...celebrate 'em both. Failures and success. One's the prerequisite for the other. And we'll all encounter them both.

Michael Jordan: "I've failed over and over again..."

I've failed over and over again and that is why I succeed. - Michael Jordan.

So...if Michael Jordan failed his way to success...do you think that same plan will work for you, for me, for us?  Got another way?

The Worms of their Self-Destruction

Ok. We've all heard the term planting the seeds of our self-destruction...Well for crickets, it's Embedding the Worms of Their Self-Destruction. And with this embedded YouTube Video you can see it happen.

The point of this is the veritable circle of life. It includes the seeds of our destruction as well as the means to create, re-create...again and again. You can't have the creation of something new without the destruction of something old. In any success is planted the seeds of its destruction. Find any industry, any global empire, any relationship, any innovation, any web 2.0 gazinga cool application, somewhere in there is the worm of its self-destruction, waiting to inject chemicals to make it leap off into a pool of water knowing it can't swim.

Balance has to be restored. I've worked at a handful of companies. And their/our imminent demise seemed so...unnecessary in some respects. Sometimes, abruptly, we jumped into the pool when we couldn't swim. Mass, but minor, psychosis seen as a wave of self-delusion, sweeps over the decision-makers and there we all were in the swimming pool with a bunch of crickets. You could sense it happening...but you couldn't stop it. Slow-motion...leaping, flailing.

And then climbing out, we all  formed something new and different and the whole thing was repeated. We've all become good swimmers, now. And as the pace of change quickens around us, we'll get to be better swimmers.  Maybe we'll get to recognize the signs of madness and step off before the plunge. Will it help?

Link from 37Signals blog.

Punishment isn't how you celebrate failure

I've yet to see punishment work as an effective response to failures, errors, mistakes. Whether it's with pets or people, punishment is so....unproductive as a tool for learning.  (Politicians in DC may be the exception to the rule. I'm still pondering that.)

Why? A. the correct way isn't learned in the process of administering punishments; B. learning is made more difficult when preceded by punishment. Receptivity tends to shut down very quickly with negative stimulus; C. you can rest assured that the next time they make a mistake you won't be informed.

Did you do this on purpose is a great post at Running A Hospital blog that deals with this issue. And he profiles how this question is used when errors are reported by nursing staff. Obviously, it's unlikely many will answer 'yes'. So what do you when they say 'no'? Answer this way:

Well then it is my fault.... Errors stem from systems flaws.... I am responsible for creating safe systems.

Now, that's tough. You have to be very strong, with a solid crew of well-adjusted people to do that. That crew and you would operate on the basis of trust and transparency. You trust them to do their best, to be accountable for their actions and to share their mistakes with you. They trust you to work with them in creating a system where they can flourish, deliver outstanding service and in the event of the inevitable errors, be treated with dignity and respect, like an adult, and correct the system.

I've worked in groups where the leader emphasized the systems. Systems fail; people don't. I liked it. It worked. We grew together, made  lots of mistakes and in a spirit of openness and transparency, worked together to create better systems.

It takes a very strong, well-rested, broad thinker to handle errors in this manner. And in this group, eventually, the strong were promoted and with them went this approach. Soon people were mentally fatigued and soon became un-disciplined in not reaching for the low-hanging fruit of frustration: blame someone.

As a leader, I always tried to remind everyone that A. mistakes happen; B. it's ok a mistake happened; C. I've made worse. I'll tell you about them, later; D. you do a great job; 'perfect' isn't part of the job description; E.  let's see what's happened and what we need to do to fix it.

But I like this question: Did you do it on purpose? And the culture of trust and transparency, with accountability and responsibility, that's created with the follow- up answer of Well then it is my fault.... Errors stem from systems flaws.... I am responsible for creating safe systems.

And if you're still attached to righteous punishment...here's a follow-up post title: What about punishment?

"I'm sorry": How to say it right

As it's still Friday, we're still celebrating failure today.

One of the skills you should develop over a lifetime of failures is the skill to say "I'm sorry." If you're going to accomplish anything meaningful in life, you're going to fail. And if you're going to have a lifetime of accomplishments, you're going to have a lifetime of failures.  Sometimes you're going to fail not only yourself, but possibly those around you.

Now's the time to learn How to Say "I'm sorry. There's an excellent script at LifeScript on this simple, way-y-y-y-y too often overlooked, step in the failure and learning process on your way to success.

Why's it important to say I'm sorry? It communicates respect for that person. You acknowledge them and how your mistakes effected their day when you apologize. Acknowledgement = respect. "I'm sorry" said properly means you respect that person.

It's also vital for your own learning process.  You can't know your mistakes and learn from them until you acknowledge them...to yourself and those effected by them. It's a matter of ownership, integrity, responsibility. You can't take on more responsibility until you show you can own what's yours right now. And that starts with ...acknowledging your errors with I'm sorry.

I'm getting close to success. Know why I know? I've become very skilled and comfortable at saying I'm sorry. It sounds kinda cocky: I'm skilled and comfortable at saying I'm sorry. And what a reason to get all puffed up and strut like a little bantam rooster. Hey, I'm an expert at saying I'm sorry...flapping my wings, arching my neck and stretching to my full height...

But seriously folks. I've had a lot of practice.

I've found it's scary, yet cleansing psychologically, to just own up and say it. It's sorta like a thrill ride at the circus. You get in the cart. The cart's on a track and you can't stop it. You go into this dark space where it seems you're out of control....and then you come out on the other side into the sunlight.

It's the same way with saying I'm sorry...I commit to making that apology. The conversation starts and we  go into a dark place where the pain and hurt resides with myself and those effected, I  say I'm sorry...and...sometimes a few scary moments happen and then I'm into the sunlight. 

Happens every time. Honestly, I always forget before I do it. But every time, just like the circus ride, I always come out into the sunlight after a few moments of darkness and sometimes a few scary events happen. Ok, sometimes the darkness has been more than a few moments. And the scary events have been...really scary. But always, always, I come out with everyone into the sunlight.

It's important for that relationship with whomever I've wronged. It's as important for my own integrity.

And I wished I'd had read this article many years before. I could have saved some of my failures, aka learning lessons, for something else. Not that I had a lack of 'em. And I could have made some of the rides a little more enjoyable.

Here's 10 Reasons Your Startup Will Fail.

From Squidoo, The Top 10 Reasons Startups Fail. (Well, success is certain, then. There's only 10.)

We're celebrating this list today. Today is Friday. We celebrate, you and me, failure on Fridays.

Why?

Without the overwhelming number of failures and what they teach us, we'd never get to success.

And here's a list of The Top 10 Reasons Startups Fail. Let's celebrate it.

Why?

Now we know. Now we don't have to do them. There's only 10. Coulda been 11 or 100. But there's only 10. 10's a short list. Barely into double-digits. That short a list means we can skip 'em. Go right to the head of the line: Success. Right?

Celebrating Failure Daily at Fail Blog

I'm still laughing.

There's a blog (you knew there would be) that shares photos  and videos of things that... fail.

FAIL blog. It's worldwide community celebrating...failure.

Celebrating Failure now on a daily basis.

I'm still laughing.