Fear of failure is paralyzing. It is the one source of impotency that can prevent all forward progress. Success becomes the most imperative, when there is a great deal to lose. It is also when it is the most difficult to act towards achieving success.

We should not forget that success is a strategic vision. There will be tactical failures along the way. Often, failures are necessary in order to gain the requisite knowledge that leads to ultimate success. An unwillingness initially to go forth and learn from failure would be the critical error that would make success impossible.

There is a tendency to mitigate risk by introducing rigid processes. If we go through these tried and true steps, then we will have satisfied ourselves that we did everything in our power. As an organization matures, its processes become more rigid and ingrained into the culture. They also become more invasive and fine grained. Every thought and action becomes regimented. The more procedures to follow, the less we rely on individuals to think. When individuals do not think for themselves, innovation ceases.

Institutionalized processes are put in place to ensure that best practices are documented. Organizations talk about continuous improvement and point to the procedures that allow for innovation to feed back into the quality system. We must realize that quality is something that we trade for at the expense of innovation and time to market. A quality system also seeks to prevent failure from occurring. Stifling the opportunity to learn from our mistakes is a fatal error. That can be a detriment to long term success.