Fail 9 Times to Succeed

Fail nine times in order to succeed.

D. Brown Management Profile Picture
Share

The ability to accept failure as part of the learning process is just one of the great insights from: The Five Elements of Effective Thinking 

Leadership Tools: Fail 9 Times Effective Thinking. Book: The 5 Elements of Effective Thinking by Edward Burger and Michael Starbird

Most decisions in life and business are not the equivalent of jumping out of a plane without a parachute.  Too many times people spend more time delaying rather than just starting to move forward.  

This does not mean moving forward without a plan when a clear plan is possible.  What it does mean is that many times when you are learning something new it is best to just get started climbing the mountain.  

“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.”

Winston Churchill

“I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.”

Thomas A. Edison

If you are inventing the light bulb then you probably have to plan to fail 10,000 times.  

For most other things in business you should put the number of 10 in your head - like a punch card at the local sandwich shop.  

Make the best plan you can and move quickly to execution.  Fail. Study the failure. Adjust. Repeat.  

Get excited because you are 10% of the way there! 

Most of the time you will succeed within 10 tries and it will have a huge positive impact on your business as long as you learned from all the failures.




Capital Constraints to Growth (The Basic Formula)
Capital is one of the three primary growth constraints for construction contractors. Use this simple formula to determine how much of your pre-tax net profits need to be retained in the company to support growth and to establish your safe growth limits.
Quote about Winning - Bob Knight
There is an excitement about winning and definitely a need to instill that vision and passion in your team. This however is just the top of the mountain and reaching the summit is momentary. It's the discipline of preparing to win that is critical.
Foreman - Four Sometimes Competing Responsibilities
No other position in the construction industry has a bigger impact on field productivity than the Foreman who is leading the crew on front-line. There are four major responsibilities the foreman has that often seem to be competing with each other: