The Right Failures

Quick answer: What separates productive failure from just failing?

John argues a failure rate alone is noise; meaning sits in the target. Aiming at something hard guarantees failures but promises nothing. What matters is finishing: Dyson's 5,127th prototype became the DC01, Edison's filament lit rooms, and Michael Jordan made varsity. The people we remember iterated, then stopped and shipped the real thing.

A New York Times review of more than six hundred Elon Musk predictions found he delivered on time about nineteen percent of the time. John says he has his own concerns about Musk, but reading that number only as dishonesty misses the stranger fact: the man who keeps one promise in five also landed a rocket on its tail, while the executive who hits every quarterly number runs a company you'll never think about. A failure rate by itself is noise. The meaning sits in the target. James Dyson built 5,126 vacuums that lost suction in a shed behind his house; the 5,127th worked in 1983, and he felt deflated, not triumphant. But John adds the harder truth: for every inventor who broke through, the floor is stacked with people who failed five thousand times and then failed again. “Fail enough and you win” is told by the winners. Aiming high guarantees failures, not success. What we remember is that they finished: the DC01, Edison's filament, Jordan's next shot.

Why it matters for leaders: Aim at something hard enough to fail, but judge yourself by whether you finally ship the real thing.

Q: How often does Elon Musk meet his predictions?

A: A New York Times review of more than six hundred predictions found he delivered on time about 19 percent of the time.

Q: How many prototypes did James Dyson build?

A: He built 5,126 vacuums that lost suction; the 5,127th worked in 1983, and he said he felt deflated, with no eureka moment.

Read the full essay on Substack → https://heroespath.substack.com/p/the-right-failures

By John Fenzel, founder and CEO of Heroes' Path Foundation