I always have the greatest time at Failure Celebration parties.
The champagne flows. The smiles are broader than an Englishman’s sense of humor after eight pints of synthetic lager. Inhibitions are shed and ululations of joy wake children in the next county.
At some point in the evening, the person at center of it all — the entrepreneur who has failed — comes over, slaps me on the back and says: “I did it! I did it again! I failed! How cool is that?!”
Is failure cool? It seems to have become very cool lately.
Article after learned, motivational article tells people that you cannot succeed unless you fail.
It’s as if you can’t succeed without failing. Or, if you do, your success is a stained, asterisk-worthy in the record books. It’s as if you’ve somehow cheated the fates and, even worse, the New Rules of Entrepreneurship.
Pain must come before joy. The zit must come before the pure complexion. Suffering is a must, as is going bust, if you want to become a true success.
Who invented this theory? I don’t want to blame the Catholic Church, but this emphasis on suffering does seem like it came from “Pain Now, Heaven Later: The Vatican Book Of Business Success.”
