Fail early, fail often, fail cheap, fail safe but always fail forward
Last updated: March 02, 2024 Read in fullscreen view
Recommended for you
- 10 Apr 2022
Agile self-organizing teams: What are they? How do they work? 28/435 - 18 Oct 2020 How to use the "Knowns" and "Unknowns" technique to manage assumptions 21/989
- 21 May 2022 "Fail Fast, Fail Often, Fail Forward" is the answer to Agile practices of software success 18/941
- 01 Oct 2020 Fail fast, learn faster with Agile methodology 13/973
- 19 Oct 2021 Is gold plating good or bad in project management? 7/754
- 10 Nov 2022 Poor Code Indicators and How to Improve Your Code? 7/213
- 06 Feb 2021 Why fail fast and learn fast? 6/375
- 20 Jan 2022 TIGO Self-Organization Practice: Change Management Workflow 6/430
- 01 Mar 2023 Bug Prioritization - What are the 5 levels of priority? 6/207
- 20 Nov 2022 Agile working method in software and football 5/323
- 16 Jun 2022 Rapid Application Development (RAD): Pros and Cons 5/799
- 14 Oct 2021 Advantages and Disadvantages of Time and Material Contract (T&M) 4/789
- 01 Jan 2024 The pros and cons of the Centralized Enterprise Automation Operating model 4/165
- 08 Oct 2022 KPI - The New Leadership 3/557
- 31 Oct 2021 Tips to Fail Fast With Outsourcing 3/375
- 18 Aug 2022 What are the consequences of poor requirements with software development projects? 3/242
- 02 Nov 2021 [Case Study] Streamlined Data Reporting using Tableau 2/276
- 23 Sep 2021 INFOGRAPHIC: Top 9 Software Outsourcing Mistakes 2/411
- 17 Feb 2022 Prioritizing Software Requirements with Kano Analysis 2/280
- 11 Nov 2021 What is an IT Self-service Portal? Why is it Important to Your Business? 2/364
- 12 Oct 2020 The Agile Manifesto - Principle #8 2/447
- 07 Oct 2020 How To Manage Expectations at Work (and Why It's Important) 2/266
- 28 Dec 2021 8 types of pricing models in software development outsourcing 2/417
- 13 Dec 2020 Move fast, fail fast, fail-safe 2/292
- 10 Dec 2023 Pain points of User Acceptance Testing (UAT) 2/416
- 02 Dec 2022 Success Story: Satsuki - Sales Management Software, back office app for School Subscription Management 2/219
- 03 Jul 2022 Manifesto for Agile Software Development 2/240
- 26 Dec 2023 Improving Meeting Effectiveness Through the Six Thinking Hats 1/205
- 05 Jan 2024 Easy ASANA tips & tricks for you and your team 1/180
- 11 Jan 2024 What are the Benefits and Limitations of Augmented Intelligence? 1/434
- 13 Feb 2021 Why is TIGOSOFT a software house for Enterprise Application Development? 1/336
- 19 Apr 2021 7 Most Common Time-Wasters For Software Development 1/525
- 03 Apr 2021 How digital asset management streamlines your content workflow? 1/312
- 28 Nov 2023 Scrum Team Failure — Scrum Anti-Patterns Taxonomy (3) /228
- 01 Mar 2022 Why Does Scrum Fail in Large Companies? /243
- 06 Nov 2023 How do you streamline requirement analysis and modeling? /184
- 09 Oct 2022 Key Advantages and Disadvantages of Agile Methodology /666
- 10 Oct 2022 Should Your Business Go Agile? (Infographic) /107
- 02 Nov 2022 Frequently Asked Questions about Agile and Scrum /372
- 03 Sep 2022 The secret of software success: Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication /186
- 16 Jul 2022 What are disadvantages of Agile Methodology? How to mitigate the disadvantages ? /353
- 21 Jun 2021 6 Useful Tips To Streamline Business Processes and Workflows /515
- 27 Oct 2020 8 principles of Agile Testing /1195
- 21 Oct 2022 Virtual meeting - How does TIGO save cost, reduce complexity and improve quality by remote communication? /166
- 06 Nov 2019 How to Access Software Project Size? /236
- 14 Mar 2024 Why should you opt for software localization from a professional agency? /117
- 12 Mar 2024 How do you create FOMO in software prospects? /127
- 01 Dec 2022 Difference between Set-based development and Point-based development /298
- 01 Jun 2022 How Your Agile Development Team is Just Like a Football Team? /206
Failing fast and failing forward is a pretty established concept and is a 'cute' way of saying “Learn by Doing.” Understand there will be failures, and keep moving forward—no wasting time. Your laser focus on getting the idea/business/product for your business right is of primary importance.
Lesson 1: You Might Not Be Responsible For Your Failures, But You Can Sure Take Responsibility For Your Success.
This year the G20 summit took place in Hamburg, Germany. It’s an important political event on a global scale, with some of the world’s most powerful countries’ leaders sitting together, talking about economics, finances, health, security, and so on. There are always protesters demonstrating for certain causes during the event, but this year, it was engulfed in a wave of vandalism.
Masked men stormed around the city, destroying everything in sight, just for the fun of it. They torched cars, ruined public facilities and trashed entire stores. I remember seeing the owner of an organic grocery store standing in his 500,000 € loss.
This failure wasn’t his fault by any means. But how fast he turns it around is up to him. A similar thing happened to Greg Horn in 1997. His store was destroyed by the Kentucky Floods and guess what the only thing was he hadn’t insured it for? Water.
Instead of giving up, though, he took responsibility for getting back to success. He continued to support his 80 employees and scraped together the $1 million it took to repair everything. Within 21 days, he was back up and running.
It’s not always your fault when things go wrong. But when you give up and sit and wallow, that is.
Lesson 2: Turn Failure Into Knowledge And Knowledge Into Success.
Maxwell tells an interesting story from another classic book, Art & Fear by Ted Orland. The teacher of a ceramics class divides her students into two groups. She told the first group they’d be graded based on how many pieces they created over the course of the class. The second group was supposed to make just one piece of pottery, but make that the best they can.
Your gut might tell you the second group should produce better work, but actually, the first group completely outgunned them when it came to quality of their creations. Why? Two reasons:
- Making multiple pieces took the pressure off every single one. Failing wasn’t so bad.
- Going through multiple stages of failure allowed them to learn from each one and improve their next piece.
This is how failure leads to success. When we put too much pressure on ourselves, we often don’t have the stomach to re-visit our failure. But how else should we find out what we did wrong?
Fail-Fast and Fail-Safe in programming:
Fail-Fast systems abort operation as-fast-as-possible exposing failures immediately and stopping the whole operation.
Whereas, Fail-Safe systems don't abort an operation in the case of a failure. Such systems try to avoid raising failures as much as possible.
Make more. Quantity over quality. Be determined to understand your failures. And then improve each time.
Lesson 3: Three Things Help You Make The Most Of The Opportunities That Come Your Way.
When your perspective shifts and failure slowly begins to transform into the stepping stone it actually is, you’ll be much more willing to take each and every single opportunity that comes your way. But just because failing isn’t so bad any more that doesn’t mean you should set out to bomb on purpose.
Instead, try to make the most of each shot you get. John suggests working on three things to ensure you do:
- Set clear goals. Specific goals have benefits on so many levels, but the most obvious is that for each opportunity, you’ll instantly know whether to take it or not.
- Work on your social skills. Even if it’s just about keeping more opportunities coming, mastering networking, communicating and bringing people together around a shared cause is worth spending some time on.
- Keep a positive mindset. I know optimism doesn’t come natural to everyone. But I think it’s the mindset most worth working on. I truly believe it’s what most of us confuse with happiness.
These are just starting points. But not only will they help you make the most of failing more, they’re even great skills to practice failing forward in. The point is to not let setbacks set you back for too long. I hope this book will help you do just that.
John C. Maxwell’s most popular book is The 21 Irrefutable Laws Of Leadership. This one isn’t quite as practical. It’s more on the inspirational side. But if it gets you to adjust your perspective about failure even slightly, it’ll be well worth your time. If you liked this summary, give Failing Forward a go.
What Else Can You Learn From The Blinks?
- How long it takes entrepreneurs on average before they succeed
- Who’s responsible for the “New Coke” disaster
- How to draw dividends from your failures
- One of the most inspiring stories in the history of tennis
- Why taking your bike or walking instead of the car might not be so much safer than you think it is
Explore more on these topics
Guest Blogging: The Definitive Guide
Top Trending Topics
Share This
Link copied!
Recently Updated News