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1-Page Summary of Failing Forward

Overview

Today, the world is a competitive place. It’s all about success. Failure is not an option because it can lead to failure in life and business.

However, failure isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s not the opposite of success; it’s actually an essential part of it. Failure is something that can be learned from and used to improve upon in the future, so we shouldn’t avoid it at all costs.

In this article, you’ll learn about the benefits of failure. You will see why it’s not always a bad thing, but rather an opportunity to learn from your mistakes and grow as a person. Failure can teach us valuable lessons that we can use in our future endeavors. We’ll also look at how Coca-Cola overcame its marketing failures to become one of the world’s most successful brands; how Thomas Edison developed his first device with the help of several failed attempts; and how Charlie Brown shouldn’t be held up as a role model because he fails so often (which is actually quite ironic).

Big Idea #1: Failure can’t be avoided, so think of it as a critical part of moving forward.

Most people try to avoid failure, but entrepreneurs know better. Most successful businesspeople attribute their success to persevering after failures. In fact, it takes an average of 3.8 failed ventures before they manage to start a successful company.

These entrepreneurs understand that even if their business fails, they will still be better off than when they started. If these people were afraid of failing, they wouldn’t have made it to where they are now.

In the real world, when a product fails, it doesn’t always mean that you have to give up. Sergio Zyman is a great example of this. He launched Diet Coke and it was very successful at first.

This success gave Zyman more confidence to pitch daring ideas. So when the company wanted to introduce a new formula for Coke, he suggested that they call it “New Coke.” He believed in this idea so much that he convinced his bosses to stop producing the old version of Coca-Cola.

Zyman was surprised that the new packaging for Coca Cola failed. They lost $100 million and he got fired. To recover from this, they reintroduced their flagship drink under a new name: Coca-Cola Classic.

As it turned out, Coca-Cola Classic was a huge hit. The drink became more popular than ever and the company earned great profits from its sales. Roberto Goizueta rehired Zyman in 1993 after recognizing that he needed daring thinkers who could make mistakes to achieve success.

Big Idea #2: Failure opens up new opportunities.

While many people believe that failure is always a bad thing, it can actually lead to positive outcomes. This was the case for Thomas Edison, who failed over 10,000 times before inventing the light bulb.

Thomas Edison was working on a telegraph machine that he hoped would be a success. However, he discovered something else entirely while trying to improve the telegraph machine. He made adjustments to his failed machines and recorded sound which could be played back again and again. By improving one thing, Edison created something completely different – the phonograph. The twentieth century author William Marston referred to this kind of experience as “drawing dividends from failure” because it opened new possibilities for him in addition to being an incentive for hard work and change in his life. For example, Bernie Marcus was fired from Handy Dan due to internal conflicts in 1978 when both his parents required financial support from him. This motivated Marcus not only to succeed but also never get caught up in corporate power struggles ever again. He teamed up with Arthur Blank who had been fired by Handy Dan as well and together they opened their own store called Home Depot that is now known as one of the most successful retail endeavors in history.