If failing is scary, why would you want to do it quickly? Seems counterintuitive, no?
There is method to this seeming madness, and GenuLines brings the usual sanity to explain in more detail.
The Art of Failing Fast
If you want to achieve a lot in life, sometimes the secret is to stop trying so hard and to put out lower quality work. Wait… what?
That’s not what they told you at school right?
And it likely goes against pretty much everything you learned when growing up. But in fact it’s very often the case when it comes to being successful so let’s take a look at why.
What it Means to Fail Fast
What I’m talking about here is ‘failing fast’. In business, this means creating your ‘minimal viable product’ or your ‘MVP’.
Then you release it as soon as you can.
For example, a company will create a product that is sub-par in many ways and that could be better. and then they’ll release ten more. During the same period another company doesn’t take the fail fast approach.
This one might only release a single product. though it’s much better quality.
Letting go
Why is it better in some cases to release things that you don’t think are the best they could be? Well it comes down to the fact that these ‘minimal viable products’ need a smaller investment.
And they allow you to get something out the door faster.
That means that you can beat the competition to market. And it means that you don’t lose out on such a big investment as you otherwise might do.
What’s more, it means you can do a quick release of something else again next week as well.
As a result you’ll be able to test the market and get an idea for whether people want to buy your product or don’t. If you get lots of interest and lots of sales then you know that it’s worth your while to invest even more time and effort.
If you don’t get any interest?
You move on, having taking the minimal financial hit. Meanwhile, your competition invested big to create one fantastic product.
But they risk that product failing and costing them huge amounts. And that could end the business.
Applying it to Life
The ‘fail fast’ technique can also apply to other areas of your life. This means releasing a ‘beta’ version to the public, and you can do this in all kinds of situations.
For instance, you’re in a social setting and you want to get an attractive person’s attention. Instead of spending all night staring at one person, try smiling at as many people as possible.
Some of them will look the other way, but when someone finally smiles back you can go over and invest the time.
See what other areas of your life you can work this idea into!
JohnK 3-27-2023
Overheard: “If you fail, never give up because FAIL means- First Attempt In Learning” ~APJ Abdul Kalam
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