Category Archives: The Beat

The Beat

It’s (Not) Okay to Fail

Generation Y does not need permission to fail. We got medals and ribbons for that very reason as kids. Gen Y normalized failure. Failure is not scary. It means you get to stay in the status quo, which most of us are very comfortable in. You get to keep being who you are, and that isn’t all bad.

It’s success – that’s scary. Indeed, we’re not changing stuff up because we’re afraid to fail, but afraid to succeed. We need to let people know, “It’s okay to succeed.”

Part of the reason we are so obsessed with normalizing failure is that we want to feel good about ourselves. And that’s hard right now, no doubt. It’s hard to find a job, to get out of debt, to pursue meaningful work. It’s hard to make time for family, get away from our computers, and engage face-to-face. It’s hard not to compare our bottoms to everyone’s top on Facebook.

So, we embrace failure. In its call for speakers, the Dare Conference says, “If you’re willing to be vulnerable, admit your failures, and share what you learned from them, we want to hear from you.” Apparently people aren’t doing that enough on the Internet?

So, we court failure. This guy goes around trying to get rejected on a daily basis. He intentionally tries to fail as if that’s an accomplishment.

So, we sleep with failure. We dream of failure. We live with failure — as a point of pride.

I don’t want to fail. Failure is boring. Failure usually means you didn’t try something; you didn’t follow through; you didn’t finish. Most people don’t really fail. They succeed at being lazy, and call it failure. But at least they tried. Er, right?

Lazy is not failure, it’s just lazy. Practice moderation, instead of binging on inspiration. Practice patience, instead of quick wins.  Start something, but then finish it.

Marc Andreessen, co-founder of the modern web browser, Netscape and leading venture capitalist, said pivots used to be called fuck-ups and begged for the startup community to put a little more stigma back into failure.

“We joke around the office that the worst is the fetish for failure,” Andreessen said. “You don’t want people to be intentionally encouraged to fail. Maybe it’s time to add a bit more stigma. The entrepreneurs I admire — I admire the ones who pivot but I really admire the ones who have persisted.”

Persist. It’s okay to succeed.

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The Beat

Does stuff have you stuck?

I met long-time online friend Allie Siarto, co-founder of a social media analytics company, the creator of Entretrip, and a wedding photographer on-the-side, at a DC coffee shop near my apartment. She ordered the Yared, a large mug of orange juice steamed with lemons, limes and honey, and we talked business, careers and life. One of the questions she asked was, “Does stuff have you stuck?”

Allie told me the story of how she and her husband bought a house in East Lansing, Michigan, one that needed a bit of tender loving care, but was generally a great house. There was one room in the house, however, that she really wanted to renovate – the kitchen. Of course, anyone that has a house, or watches HGTV, knows that the kitchen is the most expensive to renovate. And yet, Allie really wanted a new kitchen.

So she kept working. She kept working at things she didn’t like to do, and let one deal go so far that there was little room to back out. The more claustrophobic her work became, the more the kitchen came into focus. Clippings were saved, ideas were paved. And the closer she got to new granite countertops, the more she wondered. For the sake of a future kitchen, should she be so unhappy now?

There’s something to be said for sacrifice. But you should also look at your needs and wants, your values and desires, and ask yourself, “Does stuff have you stuck?”

Allie backed out of the deal with no room to back out. She and her husband rented their house, kitchen and all, and moved to the East Coast; it’s temporary, but with opportunity. They found an apartment in Dupont Circle, a two-bedroom on the cheap, a favor from a friend-of-a-friend. All of the apartment owner’s things are still there; she uses his umbrella when it rains. And someone else is living with all of her things in Michigan.

She shrugs. This is where her story ends.

She smiles. This is where her story begins.

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The Beat

Copy

Crowdsourced-invention platform Quirky accused household gadget-maker Oxo of copying one of their products last week, specifically “appropriating a feature from a product called the Broom Groomer, which was submitted to their community in 2009 by an independent inventor and launched in 2010. Their product includes ‘rubber ‘teeth’ on the back of the dustpan [that] … quickly and easily comb out dust bunnies,’” report Oxo executives on their blog. 

Oxo then fights back, explaining Quirky’s inventor wasn’t the first to come up with a dustpan with teeth. And neither was Oxo. In a brilliant reveal, Oxo shows that inventor Addison Kellley patented the idea in 1919, and goes on to methodically school Quirky on how patents work, and the idea that very few ideas are original. 

Here’s how I’ve been successful in my life so far: I copy. Some of my first classes were in art and design, and the first thing they teach is: there are no original ideas. So start. Start by copying. Imitate the masters, make the same brushstrokes, write in the same meter.  We like to believe we are all unique snowflakes, but a chair is a chair is a chair. Art is manufactured out of reverence first. Which is not to say that blatant replications should not be examined in a harsh light, only that the road to innovation is paved from imitation.

(via Oxo)

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The Beat

Are you on the wrong road? Turn back!

Early this month, Caterina Fake, co-founder of Flickr, Hunch and Findery, advised her followers on LinkedIn:

No matter how far you’ve gone down the wrong road, turn back.

“Are you two years into the law degree you know is a mistake? Turn back. Know in your heart of hearts you took that job in accounting to please your parents, when you really wanted to be a coach? Start on Plan B. Did your startup build the product in PHP when it should have been in Python? Rebuild,” Fake argues.

Fake talks about the lapse between the time you realize you’re going the wrong direction, and the time you take action. Usually, it is a long period in between. You try to steer the ship right round to the right direction, and all your belongings and memories and habits roll over each other in the cabin. You could stay the course, but if you manage to switch where you’re going, right where you went wrong, it is a homecoming of relief.

Turn back.

(via LinkedIn)

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