Afbeelding
Paul Iske of the Institute of Brilliant Failures will teach a masterclass at NHL Stenden on 26 September. Here are some of his reasons why failure is not only part of your daily life, but you even benefit from it!
1. You gain new insights
It is completely normal to want to succeed in your endeavours. And if you fail, you worry that the mistake may influence your career. However, if you really think about it; how many people do you know who instantly got fired after making one little mistake? It often takes a mistake to come up with a great idea. Take potato chips, for instance. They were invented when a chef was making fries for a demanding customer. The customer thought the fries were too thick. The chef then sliced the potatoes really thin and fried them. The rest is history. And where would we be without crisps?
2. More failures equals a higher chance of success
Companies like Google and Philips believe that for every success story, there is also a failure. Achieving success means getting up after falling down. Generally speaking, you learn to do things better after messing up a couple of times. New ideas are born especially by experiencing what does not work. And after failing a couple of times, getting the result you were aiming for feels like a victory!
3. Others learn from you
Do you remember the music road? In Friesland a road was built which played the Frisian anthem when you drove over it. It sounds fun, but it also led to noise pollution and people would speed over the road to see if the music would play faster. This unique idea turned out not to work in practice. That is why the road was quickly reverted to its original state. Do not expect a similar road anywhere in the Netherlands any time soon; this demonstrates that you are not the only one to learn from your mistakes, you are actually doing others a favour as well!