It Blew into a Million Pieces
Japanese companies get dinged all the time for being risk adverse. Not these guys -- Failure: The Secret to Success. Some great stories of gigantic failures in this little video. I love the quotes going back to old man Honda, and it`s clear the culture of try-fail-try-again still pervades their message today. Sure, this is a corporate video, but it`s pretty well done. And how can you not love the guy talking about how his engine blew into a million pieces and splattered all over the track in front of millions of people? Failure. Disappointment. Rejection. On a grand scale. That very same team brought home the championship a few years later, though. And that`s the key. Failure is the secret to success.
Have you ever failed? How big?
I`ll watch this video a few times today. Especially today.
Interesting timing. I had a spectacular failure yesterday at a presentation I gave at the SNIA Symposium. Just aweful.... but, I learned from it, I'll be better in that forum again in the future.
Posted by benr on January 23, 2009 at 02:27 AM JST #
hey Jim!
I was thinking about similar subject today :) but the story behind is something completely different. Very nice that you wrote something about it.
BTW, I will be soon back to the open source business :-)
Posted by Jing Jing on January 23, 2009 at 03:37 AM JST #
Bravo Honda! Thanks for Posting that Jim. What a great video.
To many people see failure as failure, and I like Honda (not knowing until today) see failure as a process towards success.
If you did everything perfectly then I doubt you ever learned anything and don't do very much.
I used to tell people who asked me where I went to college and how I learned about all this computer stuff? I tell them. I am the biggest screw up in computers. I have broken more, re-installed and mess up more in my time than you ever will. I have written lines of horrible code, and done things wrong. Only to come out on top. With a good job, almost 20 years in IT, and I am still making mistakes that I learn from.
Thanks again! Much needed.
Posted by David Vasta on January 23, 2009 at 05:28 AM JST #