There are a number of lists of famous "failures" on the internet, folks in various disciplines who stuck with something until they succeeded. Here's one from the Division of Educational Studies at Emory, University. Back when I was doing a lot of software engineering work, I remember reading that at the time something like 40% of all software projects fail. Improvement in software engineering disciplines has reportedly reduced that failure rate to 15% in recent years, but that still means that more than one project out of every ten software projects started will fail. And some studies continue to report high failure rates for IT projects. In fact, more than one software project out of every ten should fail.
Being able to recognize failure for what it is and accept our own failures means we can learn from our mistakes and oversights, and reduce the chance of their happening in the future. I've sometimes had people who were considering great life changes ask me, "but what if I fail?" One might ask them, what if you don't and you continue down a fruitless path without learning anything or growing from your mistakes? What if you never try and come to regret your fear later in life?
There's a time to be optimistic about our prospects for failure, and a time to be pessimistic. Martin Seligman has pointed out that we don't want the person piloting our airplane to tell herself, "I can have a couple of drinks before I fly ... the likelihood of something bad happening is low." When the cost of failure is high, we want to be careful with the optimism. Two key questions to ask ourselves when making an important life decision (career related or otherwise) are: what would be the cost if I fail? and what will be my regret if I never try?
I suppose another way of putting it would be: take risks, but take them wisely.
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2 comments:
Exponential costs of change belie a stark reality: Unless the product is shipped before the cost of change becomes exponential, it will very likely fail. Many projects become races to see if enough features can be created to make a viable product before adding the additional required features becomes too expensive.
Hitting the wall before release: A small team of programmers is making good progress adding features to a product. Before the needed features can be delivered, some event makes the cost of change exponential and all progress stops. These events may include losing a key team member, adding team members to accelerate production, unforeseen difficulties with technology choices, unforeseen requirements, and major changes in target audience/market.
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Anderson110
careers
Exponential costs of change belie a stark reality: Unless the product is shipped before the cost of change becomes exponential, it will very likely fail. Many projects become races to see if enough features can be created to make a viable product before adding the additional required features becomes too expensive.
Hitting the wall before release: A small team of programmers is making good progress adding features to a product. Before the needed features can be delivered, some event makes the cost of change exponential and all progress stops. These events may include losing a key team member, adding team members to accelerate production, unforeseen difficulties with technology choices, unforeseen requirements, and major changes in target audience/market.
===================================
Anderson110
careers
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