On Failing Forward

A few months ago, Bullhorn’s CEO, Art Papas, wrote a blog post on failing forward for Harvard Business Review. In it he discussed the challenges he faced in growing Bullhorn from a nascent start-up in 1999 to the global leader in recruiting software. It’s one of my favorite pieces. Much has been written about failure as a positive experience, but those people who claim that failure is an exciting and crucial gateway to growth have a romanticized view of its impact. Failure can be damning to self-confidence. It can derail even the most earnest endeavors. While all truly great things are worth pursuing even in the midst of struggle and criticism, having an idea or team collapse invokes a personal level of defeat that mere setbacks or pivots don’t.

I encourage you to read Art’s piece and take his advice to heart. You don’t have to embrace failure if you don’t want to. And you certainly don’t have to be thankful for it. You just need to learn from it – and there’s not always something to be learned – and then aggressively push it out of your way.

“For Entrepreneurs, Failure Isn’t Always a Good Teacher” – Harvard Business Review – http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2013/05/for_entrepreneurs_failure_isnt.html