Nothing to fear but what might have been

Of all the fears that come with being in business, I think the fear of failure is the worst, the most paralyzing and the most costly.

Costly? Don't the actual failures cost a lot of money? Sure. But refusing to try new ideas, methods or products because you're afraid they might fail can prevent you from growing. Fear can cloud your judgment and make calculated risks look like Mount Everest.

I have taken some colossal risks in my career, not without some trepidation. But it was never fear of failure. I have had spectacular failures. And no, that is not an oxymoron: A spectacular failure can, and often will, lead to your most spectacular success.

Fear of failure starts early. In school, failing a test is a demoralizing event, even if we hadn't studied. You aim for the honor roll, the dean's list and head of the class.

Fast-forward about 10 years. You've gone out on a limb to support a project that sounds foolproof, but it's not working quite the way it was supposed to. Your brilliant career is tarnishing; you're worried that you will be labeled a failure.

Stop worrying. Start learning from your experience. Sometimes a tweak will fix the problem. Sometimes you need to scrap the mess and chalk it up as a teachable moment.

"A fall from the third floor hurts as much as a fall from the 100th. If I have to fall, may it be from a high place," Brazilian author Paulo Coelho said.

At the turn of the 20th century the brothers failed to launch the largest glider ever flown and predicted that man would probably not fly in their lifetimes. But they kept trying.

In 1903, Orville took their latest design, dubbed, "The Flyer," for a few test flights. The first two failed. But the third resulted in 12 glorious seconds and 120 feet aloft. Fear of failure wasn't in their vocabulary.

In 1919, Goddard published a scientific paper, "A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes." The essence of his work was that human space travel was possible. It was not well received. The New York Times led the media criticism with the opinion that Goddard "does not know the relation of action to reaction. He only seems to lack the knowledge ladled out daily in our high schools."

Was Goddard a failure? At the time, many thought he was crazy. Today, Goddard is considered the father of modern rocket science. As the Apollo astronauts blasted off for the moon in 1969, the Times printed an apology for the decades-old editorial.

British author Samuel Smiles summed it up: "We learn wisdom from failure much more than from success. We often discover what will do by finding out what will not do; and probably he who never made a mistake, never made a discovery."