The Limits of the Concepts of Success and Failure

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	• The Innovation Paradox : The Success of Failure, the Failure of Success Richard Farson, Ralph Keyes Free Press, 2003 - 144 pages average customer review:based on 18 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Uncommon Common Sense

Richard Farson and Ralph Keyes are unique thinkers whose refreshing insights and reflections on how we live our lives - what we bring to our workplaces and relationships -are paradoxically simple and complex. On page 129 they caution about "learning how not to be shattered by the humiliation of failure or unnerved by the stress of success," a running theme. They see the two, failure and success, as two sides of the same coin. The primary focus of The Innovation Paradox is on business but the lessons transcend management and leadership in the workplace. For example, you will be fascinated to read on page 45 that "it's unlikely our friendship will survive a friend's triumph." This slim 129 page book is one that you will dog ear and come back to time and again. You will find yourself alternately scratching your head (huh?), nodding in knowing agreement (aha!), and getting angry (agghh); and having a lot of fun along the way. I highly recommend this book that delivers uncomfortable truths, knowing wisdom and uncommon common sense.

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The Limits of the Concepts of Success and Failure

Making mistakes is a key part of succeeding at anything, the authors believe. Mistakes educate, and education leads to success. They tell the story of Thomas Watson's early loss of company resources at IBM, and his inital expectation that it would lead to his firing, so he offered to resign instead. "You must be kidding," he was told. "We've just invested $10 million in your education."

Those who play it safe can avoid making mistakes, but they do so at a cost of a lack of genuine achievement. To be genuinely supportive of risk-takers, a company must be tolerant of failures, the authors argue.

Just the education caused by failures often leads to success, so the hubris or overconfidence caused by success often leads to failures. Success and failure are not polar opposites, but rather merely separate parts of an integrated whole.

The important thing a person can do to focus on getting the job done in the best way possible, and not become paralyzed with fear as to whether his or her efforts will succeed or fail. Success and failure are beyond one's personal control, but the personal effort and focus and energy are not. The authors quote basketball great Bill Russell of the Boston Celtics as saying he was often so involved in the games he was playing that he didn't really care if he won or lost: the authors paradoxically argue that this is an attitude that is key to winning.

A lot of people who the world regards as successful do not see themselves that way, from Maria Shriver to J.P. Getty. A person who is successful in one area likely has failed in another. The key is to learn from one's mistakes, not repeat them, and stay in the game. Staying in the game is the great reward that motivates many successful people.

This is an extremely wise and humane book. It recognizes that any definition of success is limited in the number of people who can qualify as successful, and that the list of those who are successful at any one time is different from the list of those who are successful at any other time. It recognizes that a key steppingstone to success by any definition is the ability to learn and profit from failure.

This is an extremely useful book for people in the middle of corporate hierarchies. It is also valuable for those debating whether or not to take a given risk, and for those who have taken a risk that has failed. It is valuable for anyone who has to supervise others, or plan for the future, or try to make his or her organization more responsive to an ever-changing world.

Few books are more valuable than this one in coping with the ups and downs of business, or the ups and downs of life. Few people are so dazzingly brilliant or amazingly lucky that they go through life without being harmed by either success or failure. For all those aware of the danger points, this is a book that offers an exit strategy from them.

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Fantastic!

This is the best business book I've ever read- and I've read tons already! It lets you completely re-imagine your attitude toward success, failures and LIFE. Very deep and wise.

Philosophical and inspirational! Quite zen!

Recently I had read three great books on mistakes:- "Will your next mistakes be fatal? by Robert Mittelstaedt", "Why Smart Executives Fail: And What You Can Learn from Their Mistakes? by Sydney Finkelstein", and "In Search of Stupidity: Over 20 Years of High-Tech Marketing Disasters by Merrill R. Chapman". To prevent myself from being too risk aversive (just kidding!) I dig into Amazon to get an antidote. Now I am writing a review of it.

Beyond expectation, positively, this book is highly philosophical or even zen. For e.g., on pg 10, "To cope with this economy dont flee from its complexity,; embrace it. In the world to come, we will repeatedly face fluid, ambiguous, even paradoxical, situations....Grow your business by destroying your business; to get big, think small; increase your share of markets by ignoring the concept of market share. We would add: Manage success and failure by not making clear distinctions between the two." And on pg 13, "We assume that success is the pinnacle, failure the pits. They're not. The real pinnacle is when we are so engaged in what we're doing that this distinction vanishes. Athletes call it being in the zone.....when faced with extreme challenges they entered a state of elevated concentration - one he called flow - in which time seemed to stand still, one moment blended into the next, and doing the right thing became almost effortless."

Certainly, the two quoted passages above are not representative of the whole book which gives plenty of good case studies (in particular 3M) and strategic suggestions. However, that sets the overall tone, which distinguishes it from the tons of "mistake" genre of books in the market. IMHO, this is a very good and interesting read for business and personal enhancement. Highly recommended!

Below please find some of my favorite passages for your reference:-

I've missed more than nine thousand shots in my career," admitted Michael Jordan. "I've lost almost three hundred games. Twenty-six times I've been trusted to take the winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed." pg 32

The world belongs to those who dont let anxiety about screwing up keep them from moving forward. Those who are too afraid to make a mistake work for those who arent. Even harder than making our own mistakes is letting others make theirs. pg 34

One reason for the collapse of the Soviet Union was that its state controlled economy grew obsessively intolerant of mistakes.....The essence of a free market economy is constant correction based on continual consumer feedback in response to errors. pg 38

When it came to warfare, the samurai strived to achieve victory by becoming fully absorbed in a process that would lead them there, not by setting their sights on victory itself...Samurai swordsman Miyamoto Musashi called this "total absorption of purpose in a single telling bow." pg 119

Success comes from being awake, aware, and in tune with others. - Phil Jackson, NBA Coach pg 122

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A Paradign Changing Book

Farson and Keyes offer a book that will change the way you view success and failure. The authors convincingly argue that neither of these two phenomena are necessarily what they appear to be - success, as typically defined, often comes with its own burdens; failure, as usually understood, is often the catalyst that leads to positive results. So what should one strive for? In a sense, neither, the authors would argue. The value comes in being engaged in life, focused on the process rather than the outcome. For business leaders, the advice is the same, with the additional suggestion to create an environment that supports productive failing (which ultimatley leads to success). The book is filled with numerous examples to support the authors' thesis. It's a quick read, with valuable insights to change your perceptions of the two semingly irreconcilable opposites of success and failure.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4

In The Innovation Paradox, Richard Farson and Ralph Keyes argue that failure has its upside, success its downside. Both are steps toward achievement, and the two extremes are not as distinct as we imagine. In today's business economy, it's not success or failure -- it's success and failure that lead to genuine innovation. History's great innovators, from Thomas Edison and Charles Kettering to Bill Gates and Jack Welch, saw failure as an important stepping-stone -- and with this groundbreaking book, you too can learn how to become more failure tolerant, more risk friendly, and therefore more innovative. Today's most prominent businesspeople agree that The Innovation Paradox has the formula for failure and success down to a science,

Make no mistake: If you're looking to reinvent yourself, your ideas, or your business model, this book is your sure-fire way to start.

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