Failing Forward: Why Failure Can Propel Corporate Success and Boost Creativity

Talk with any author, performer, inventor, or entrepreneur and they will teach you one critical lesson—behind every success is a litany of failures.  The key is to allow your failures to move you forward. In education and psychology we call this a growth mindset. 

Sara Blakely is the creator and founder of Spanx. When she first began developing the concept of a “comfortable girdle” she faced numerous failures, design flaws, and rejections by manufacturers and purchasers who thought her product was “silly” and wouldn’t appeal to women. 

Blakely credits her success to a growth mindset she developed as a child. Growing up her father would ask her “What did you fail at this week?” She says that he taught her that true failure isn’t not achieving the right outcome, it’s being paralyzed by fear and not trying.

One challenge is that few of us are taught how to fail. Instead schools, coaches, and even parents perpetuate messages that true success is first place, straight A’s, or sports champions. Psychologists report that fear of failure leads to playing it safe and limits creativity.

Businesses thrive when they are able to be on the cutting edge, innovating in their field. But if their employees are too afraid of failure, they’ll never achieve that goal. Instead, they will be focused on avoiding mistakes or risky endeavors that could land them out of a job.

Playing it safe is the foundation of preserving the status quo. It operates in the world of reality: what already exists, what customers are buying now, how the world looks in this moment. This mindset is unable to innovate because it can’t think outside the box and risk failure.

Boosting creativity requires employers to abandon reward structures based only on outcomes and start rewarding risks. Companies like Google have begun to do this by rewarding those who acknowledge failures or spend time on “failed” exploration projects. This leads to innovation.

So how do you embrace failure in your workplace? Begin by celebrating failures along with success. The next time you announce a new product being launched in your company, recognize all the failed attempts it took to get there. Build a culture that honors risks.

Next, start changing your internal monologue around failure. Remind yourself that in order to be the best, it is necessary for you to spend time failing and learning from those mistakes. Embrace the power of “yet” that drives a growth mindset and allow it to foster creativity.

Failure never feels good in the moment. But remind yourself that it’s just that—a moment. Tomorrow you can come back stronger, ready to learn from your failure, and create something that will propel your career and company into a brighter future.