Wednesday Words
To Go Where Your VisionPoints, a few inspiration points for you and your business.
The trouble in America is not that we are making too many mistakes, but that we are making too few.
—Phil Knight, founder of Nike
Has Phil got it right? What say you?
Grow and be well,
Kelly Erickson
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11 March 2009, 7:05 am
Ummm…howcum this sounds all too familiar?
What Phil says is correct, but I think he’s rehashing what others have said many times before.
There are lots of variations of this theme. I can come up with two off the top of my head…just by Googling Thomas Edison:
“They say President Wilson has blundered. Perhaps he has, but I notice he usually blunders forward”.
“Results? Why, man, I have gotten a lot of results. I know several thousand things that won’t work.”
I give Phil A for content. But a C-plus for originality.
Friar’s last blog post…Contest Winners Announced!
11 March 2009, 7:13 am
Friar,
If President Wilson had blundered a little further forward, I wonder if 80+/- years later we could be in a whole different economy.
Just sayin’.
Edison said several things like this, too. I like Phil’s way of saying it, though.
IMO, so many folks have said it because we still need to hear it. Risk-aversion is a top-ten international pastime!
Regards,
Kelly
11 March 2009, 8:11 am
Mr. Legree at 6weeks has a saying, Fail Early, Fail Often. Words to live by. Just make sure you only make the same mistake once, otherwise you look like an idiot.
Eyeteaguy.
Eyeteaguy’s last blog post…I don’t know
11 March 2009, 8:17 am
@Eyeteaguy
Where I work, the company motto is:
“Fail Often. Again. And again. And again and again and again……”
@Kelly
How about another quote:
“Hey you…! 5-minute lunch hour over!…You get back to work…! NOW!”
- Sweatshop Foreman at the Shoe Factory, somewhere in Asia
11 March 2009, 12:12 pm
I dunno, but here’s my favourite Phil Knight quote:
Is it the shoes?
~Graham
Graham Strong’s last blog post…5 Steps To Better Brainstorming for the Intrepid Freelancer and Independent Business Owner
11 March 2009, 4:31 pm
Kelly ,
I think there are a lot of people out their quietly failing and creating innovation as they go… it’s just not sexy until it it ends up as entertainment, or the hot new thing. So we have to look carefully for it.
Seen any reality shows from MIT?
But we all know about that Bachelor fail. LOL
Janice Cartier’s last blog post…A Very Raw Plan
11 March 2009, 4:32 pm
That would be there not their.
Janice Cartier’s last blog post…A Very Raw Plan
11 March 2009, 9:16 pm
LOL, what happened? I swear I responded here earlier today, but there’s no evidence. My spam filter ate my own comment?
Francis,
I love Brett’s borrowed motto. No desire to watch the movie, mind you, but the get-up-and-go-at-it-again sentiment of 6 Weeks… I’m all for it.
Friar,
I thought that “get back to work” quote was from a nuclear Factory somewhere deep in the heart of Canada. No?
Graham,
Yep. It’s the shoes. Believing in the brand can only take you so far. Then it’s time to put on a pair of Kenneth Coles.
Janice,
But remember, the really fine ladies go for MIT men.
Wait, there was a better point here, wasn’t there? Oh, yes. I think it’s the scale. Little failures that teach us a lot—some people are willing to go there, it’s true. Big, colossal, what happens if we reinvent an industry stuff like Pixar, say, or even Apple long before that? Not too often. Need more of it.
Need more of the little risks, too, but the big innovators have power to embolden the little guys.
Until later,
Kelly
12 March 2009, 11:39 am
I read the book Sway a few months back and the whole risk aversion is a huge influence in so many disasters. If we worry too much about failing, then we always will and in bigger and worse ways.
Alex Fayle | Someday Syndrome’s last blog post…Making suckiness good: Lab Rats Week 1
12 March 2009, 1:53 pm
Both of those PIXAR and Apple started very very small and grew up.
Change, innovation is like that too.
What you’re asking for is like asking a huge tanker to turn itself around in a channel, can be done, but it requires those little tug boats to do it. And a captain who sees the need.
Janice Cartier’s last blog post…A Very Raw Plan
12 March 2009, 5:32 pm
@Janice
Unless the captain is pissed drunk, and crashes the tanker, and spills crude oil over the entire Ecosystem!
Friar’s last blog post…It makes me wonder…
13 March 2009, 12:02 pm
ROFLOL ..yeah, my friend Shea was the one who had to go clean all that up….Another friend gets to rebuild all those docks…
You crack me up Friar… I love it.
Janice Cartier’s last blog post…Building Bridges
13 March 2009, 2:22 pm
Alex,
OMG, I’ve read several excerpts from Sway and that stuff is fabulous! I love/hate finding out how malleable my supposedly independent brain is, how my own worries and those of others interrupt my brilliant (lol) brain processes. You’re right, deeply embedded risk aversion just makes failing when we finally do take the risk more likely.
Janice,
Yes, they started small. But both intended to be game-changers from minute #1, to go where there was no path and let others follow them. That’s a lot of risk, and part of what enabled them to become big.
I agree that most often changes come from lots of little tugboats creating change. (Can you say junior senator from Illinois for President?)
Phil, being head of a mighty large empire, was suggesting (I think) that the Big Boys would do well to “think small.” And stop treating The Way It Is as an absolute. True, it isn’t a terribly original thought, but then what is? I just wish more folks were heeding it.
P.S. Ever see Finding Nemo? Watch the “swim down” scene at the end. I get teary every time. Yay, little guys changing “the way it’s always been”!
Later,
Kelly
13 March 2009, 2:23 pm
Okay. I’m sorry. It took me two light-seconds to come post here on seeing something that implies America should make more mistakes.
Aren’t there enough fucking up the world already? I’ll be the first to say I’ve had enough. The mistakes can stop now.
James Chartrand – Men with Pens’s last blog post…A Skewed Sense of Time Screws Up Your Schedule
13 March 2009, 2:40 pm
James,
Bwah haha.
Several days, and a couple of light-seconds.
Thank you to all the other applicants, the position of Chief Contrarian has been filled. I was a bit surprised that there weren’t more folks generally scratching their heads about the idea of making more mistakes.
I still defend Phil’s position, hunkering down is NOT good enough, but I’m glad I got you howling, James.
Later,
Kelly
13 March 2009, 2:48 pm
Oh goodie. I thought I might actually have to apologize to you in private when I finally calmed down (not for my statements, but because I like you). Now I don’t. I’m very happy
(Okay, now I feel dumb. I went to look for Phil’s comments to see what he said. Doooh…)
Make mistakes, sure. But ()*^%$ clean up the damage after you make one before moving on.
Okay, I have to leave. Getting angry again. French blood and all
James Chartrand – Men with Pens’s last blog post…A Skewed Sense of Time Screws Up Your Schedule
13 March 2009, 3:05 pm
Heh. I put it out here for comments, didn’t I? S’okay. Besides, I’m a Perfect American. I didn’t make any mistakes, so I’m not personally offended.
But I’m planning to risk more in the future, because Phil tells me it’s good.