The Other "F" Word: How Smart Leaders, Teams, and Entrepreneurs Put Failure to Work

Part IWhatThe Facts and Facets of Failure

Failure's like gravity. A pervasive, albeit occasionally inconvenient, fact of life—and one we absolutely depend upon. We ignore it at our peril because, like gravity, the other F word has the potential to simultaneously ground, elevate, and accelerate our efforts to drive innovation and growth. If we are wise enough to pay attention.

In this section, we orient you to the issues and facts surrounding the other F word, including the baggage the word “failure” itself evokes. Most new businesses, acquisitions, products, major IT projects, new hires—the list goes on—fail either totally or significantly. It's a fact of life we need to recognize and respect before we can harness its potential.

We define failure as “mistakes and unwelcome outcomes that matter.” This encompasses both unexpected outside events that happen to us and those failures created or even invited by us, as in results from intentional experiments.

Failure is also a quintessentially personal, painful, and emotional experience, which is why it can be so hard to address. Its memory lingers and deepens our fear of failure going forward. In fact, both the memory and fear of failure distort our ability to realistically confront and manage it rationally. Fear of failure is one of the biggest challenges you face as a leader trying to accelerate growth and ignite more innovation in ...