On the edge of failure is innovation

Fear of failure is the norm for a lot of bootstrapper’s. Failure for a bootstrapper can be disastrous in many ways. If we fail in our project we may lose our savings, our home, quite possibly even the love and support from our partner and family. It is this fear that keeps us up at night, how real it is depends on many factors; are we achieving our goals, are we doing the easy things or the hard things on a consistent basis. Did we make sure we had our partners support before starting our project.

We have to ask ourselves what is the worst that can happen when we do fail, which we inevitably will at some point, they may be big failures or little failures but we will fail along the way. Take 5 minutes, imagine the worst, plan and prepare for it and don’t look at it again unless you’re there. So now you know what you will do if the worst comes you don’t have to worry about it.

Failure is what it takes to create innovation, to quote Edison “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work” He eventually succeeded in creating the light bulb. To be truly innovative we have to live on the edge of failure, it is the only way we will ever innovate.