“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work” – Thomas Edison
Okay, so this isn’t the first time you’ve heard someone talk about the importance of goals, and it’s definitely not going to be the last.
Understanding the importance of goal setting and knowing how to set goals for yourself is crucial to accomplishing great things in your life. We’ve heard people go on about how setting objectives is important because it gives you a sense of direction and propels you to move forward. But cliches aside, the most salient reason in my opinion is that goals hold you accountable of failure. If you don’t write down concrete goals and give yourself a timeline for achievement, how can you look back and re-evaluate your path if you fail? It’s a concrete sign that whatever you’re doing isn’t working, and you need to make real changes if you want to get where you want to be.
Inspiration doesn’t always have to come from real-life people. We often find ourselves inspired by characters that live in the realms of the books we read, the movies we watch, the games we play… Most great stories have a message that transcends into real life, passing on valuable lessons from complex and wise characters. Who better than Yoda to stand as proof of that?
To experience success, we need to experience failure first. Many times over. That is how the Jedi get to know and control the Force, by becoming one with it. To learn, one must embrace failure and know that success is always temporary. The whole movie encapsulates this lesson. Everyone fails.
People make mistakes. That’s one thing we can count on all humans to do. Either it’s a mispronounced word or a text sent to the wrong person, maybe it’s a bad haircut or the decision to devour that chocolate cake after a strict diet – our lives are bursting with blunders, some big, some small and some too evident to ignore (Damn you, chocolate!).
Last year, Sweden opened one of the most unique establishments in the world – The Museum of Failure, a place that celebrates the greatest failures in innovation. Touted as the mecca of creativity, Sweden has always been at the forefront of astounding innovation. Thus, it should come as no surprise that the country has managed to sweep us off our feet with yet another brilliant contribution. The reason behind this one-of-a-kind institution is linked to founder, Samuel West’s strong belief – that we glorify success so tremendously, that we often end up demonizing failure. And the more I think about this, the more I realize how true it is!
In 1853, a customer at a New York restaurant kept complaining that the French fries being served to him were too thick. Chef George Crum, made a thinner batch, but the customer was still unsatisfied. Crum finally made fries that were too thin to eat with a fork, hoping to annoy the extremely fussy diner. Surprisingly enough, the customer fell in love with the dish and that’s how potato chips were born. But what if George Crum hadn’t failed the first time around? What if the world’s most loved snack had not been invented? Would we be living in a world without potato chips?
The media industry is not unfamiliar with the perils of failure. We research and research and research with the hope that our media design emerges flawless. We spend hours trying to perfect every element because it’s better to learn from others’ mistakes than make our own. Admitting we’ve made an error equals being in the eye of the storm and that’s a place no creative media professional wants to be. We’re all afraid of the aftermath, not realizing that our mistakes reveal what consumers really think and more importantly, how resilient a brand is. The ideas that see the light of day, we subject them to evaluation and critique. The conversation, however, is often restricted to the audience’s viewpoint, which makes me wonder why the media professional’s perspective isn’t considered? Subjectivity in media should be a two-way street – one with the creator’s standpoint and the other with an opposing or supportive take. It is only in such a situation that the final design of the media plan can truly be assessed. For how can you judge something without fully understanding its origin, and thereby its intent. Though what the company values at the end is the profit or stir it caused among the audience. The question here is that why doesn’t a company sit down and evaluate why the media plan or product design which appeared flawless once, failed miserably when it was subjected to the consumer’s approval?
Let me go ahead and give you a few examples as to how some brands regard customer evaluations to the highest degree, while some trust and believe in their employee professionals and in their instinct. When GAP re-branded itself in 2010, it was met with tremendous backlash. Customers hated the new design, calling it strange and unoriginal. Instead of pushing the concept further, GAP immediately withdrew the new logo and reinstated the old design. While this cost the company millions, it also showed the world that when its customers speak, GAP is willing to listen. Although unsuccessful at first, this experiment allowed the brand to understand its audience better and that’s never a bad thing! Take the opposite outcome of another re-branding exercise. In 2016, Instagram revamped its entire look, introducing a new logo, interface and experience. The new look received millions of negative reviews, but not once did the company think to revert to its old design. Cut to a year later, the app has more subscribers than ever with record-breaking content being created each day. Had Instagram listened to the criticism surrounding its new design, we would never have familiarized ourselves with the beauty of its new experience. This experiment with Instagram proves that what initially seems erroneous might actually be a blessing in disguise. When we make mistakes, we learn from them and thereby, we grow. And more often than not, the things we think are massive blunders are probably just norms waiting to be broken.
So, go ahead, make that mistake. “Ruin” that media plan. Defy those norms.
It’s never too late to invent your potato chip.
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