It may be difficult to learn from failure, but it’s easy to learn from mistakes
I posted the following this morning as a comment to Michael Schrage’s HBR post entitled, “The Failure of Failure“: Michael, you bring up some very provocative points in this piece. One issue with...
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From the Mistake Bank: make a mistake, get promoted
This story is from William Johnson, the CEO of H.J. Heinz. It was a mistake in this company that got me my first major promotion. We had a hot cocoa line called Alba. We had an underutilized factory...
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Mistake Bank Podcast #1 – John Bliss, founder of Bliss PR
Welcome to the first in a series of podcasts in which we explore learning from mistakes with successful entrepreneurs. First up, John Bliss, founder of Bliss PR, discusses starting out working for the...
View ArticleLeaders’ actions speak far louder than their words
I read this story recently and found it very affecting. It is by Paul Anderson, former CEO of BHP Billiton: After I spent about a year at BHP Billiton, …profitability was up, and our efficiency was up;...
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Mistake Bank Podcast #2 – Charlie Crystle of Chilisoft and Mission Research
Here’s our second podcast focusing on the mistake stories of successful entrepreneurs. Our guest is Charlie Crystle, who founded Chilisoft, a web infrastructure provider which in 1999 was sold to...
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From the Mistake Bank: “The Power of Positive Failure”
There is enough of a chorus of ideas (such as this one from Nancy White referencing Chris Corrigan who points to Alexander Kjerulf) around learning from mistakes and failures that I feel we may be on...
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Mistake Bank Podcast #5 – Monica Gould of Strategic Consulting Partners
#5 in our series of interviews with successful entrepreneurs in which they talk about the mistakes that helped shape their careers. Our guest is Monica Gould, who founded her business, Strategic...
View ArticleMistake Bank Video Podcast #7 – Sue Pera on opening a second store
Sue Pera and her husband Al own the Cornerstone Coffeehouse in Camp Hill, PA (where I live). Sue was very gracious to sit down and talk about an important mistake they made while considering expansion...
View ArticleStories of innovation success can mislead
I posted on this cool promo for the new Steven Johnson book (”Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation“) the other day, but now I wanted to reflect on one of the points Steven...
View ArticleFrom the Mistake Bank: Marissa Mayer on Google’s Biggest Mistakes
It’s always refreshing to hear mistake stories from companies whose successes have given them mythical status. Consider Google. There have been so many stories written about their engineering prowess...
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