In my classes, usually on the first day, I acquaint students with one of “Dr Russo’s Maxims” – that, as freshmen, “you won’t necessarily know what you are doing, but go forth and fail anyway. I cannot know that you are trying if you don’t fail the first time (and maybe thereafter).”
The other Maxim is this: There are only two kinds of people in the world: Those with issues and the … dead. [I borrow this last one from Dr Christian Conte, perhaps the very best professor I myself have ever had (Twitter: @Dr_Conte).]
Back to the first maxim: Go forth and fail.
When I was working (I mean in my earlier career as a finance guy, operations guy, and sales guy), I had a wide vinyl banner made and then hung above the door in our offices in Manhattan. Employees saw it every time they left the office on their way to do whatever they were going to do – be it talking to a customer, trying to sell something, or to just living life.
Failure is the precedent action to success. You won’t have an idea about you’re doing until you fail, and then it comes into stark focus. Failure reminds you of your basic humanity, which of course is as a broken person. Failure reminds you of the basic nature of the universe, which is total anarchy and chaos. Success in the face of failure, or rather, because of it, is a moment of clarity, a completing of some unseen circle.
They say that practice makes perfect. Or perfect practice makes perfect. I disagree. In the words of Mel Brooks’ wife, Anna Maria Louisa Italiano, known professionally as Anne Bancroft, “practice until you cannot get it wrong.” In other words, look for failure. Look for it and isolate its antecedents. Develop a muscle memory around what you are trying to do.
Find ways to fail and eradicate their root causes. Yes, the list may seem endless, but for any given endeavor there are ways to minimize them and to ensure success time after time.
Even Walter White, he of Breaking Bad fame, had to experiment with different ways to make crystal meth. He came to the task with rich knowledge about the chemistry but had to deal with unknown unknowns, like getting a source of methylamine. He failed, then succeeded spectacularly.
Kids, don’t try to be Walter White. But learn to embrace failure. Go forth and fail. You will be all the better for it.
