One aspect of American culture, and of digital/Internet companies' culture in general, that fascinates me is the culture of failure and managing mistakes.
Particularly when we compare it with the experience of failure in Italy.
In our culture, failing is like committing a sin! It is no coincidence that one of the worst insults you can direct at someone is: you are a failure!
Across the Atlantic (and in other European cultures), by contrast, failure is seen as enriching, as a necessary process for growing, learning and ultimately succeeding.
The idea is that things can only go wrong for someone who tries.
90% of Silicon Valley start-ups close in the medium term. Only 10% survive, but do not imagine they all become like Facebook or Google.
In the United States, there are even events and conferences on managing failure and sharing what has been learned from mistakes.
The Failcon event dedicated to start-ups and failure
The founders of many well-known, thriving Internet companies went through several failures (or perhaps we should call them attempts) before succeeding.
I really like the quote below from Drew Houston, founder of Dropbox:
Do not worry about failure: you only need it to go right once! (Don't worry about failure, you only have to be right once)
This quote also makes us reflect on the value of perseverance: we will never know which attempt will be the right one if we give up before achieving success.
The animated film SING offers a perfect summary of this idea.
The entrepreneurial koala who stars in Sing
A wonderful film that adults should also watch (I have become a fan of animated films because their storytelling has reached a level beyond "human" films 😁).
But how do we build a culture of failure/learning/success?
In my view, by supporting a culture of action and experimentation. We need to encourage initiative in children and young people.
We need to eliminate the fear of mistakes and, when one happens, work on analysing its causes and the lessons that can be learned.
Managing mistakes should be taught in school and within companies.
Mistakes carry a very strong emotional charge that can be harmful in the long term because it introduces negative beliefs. Being able to process and interpret a mistake constructively allows us to use that emotion for lasting learning.
Companies with a culture of "failure" value young people pursuing personal projects more highly, because they know that all this know-how comes back into the company, both as knowledge and as an approach to business.
Google has gone further: not only does it let employees devote part of their time to their own projects, it has even created Area 120, an incubator for them that follows the same funding rules as other start-up incubators.
To achieve success, the start-up motto is:
Fail fast and succeed faster (Fail Fast and succeed faster)!