There Is No Such Thing As Failure

Today’s advice comes from Richard Sandor, CEO of Chicago Climate Exchange, via WSJ:

“We have a peculiar philosophy within the company. There is no such thing as failure, we only view things as clinical experiments.”

To demonstrate his point, Sandor used the drug Salvarsan — also called compound 606 — as an example.

Compound 606 predates penicillin and was used to treat syphilis in the early 1900s. According to Sandor, the drug got its nickname after its creator failed 606 times before getting it right.

Perseverance is an important factor when reaching towards a goal and Sandor believes that failure cannot be viewed as the end of a project.

“Leadership and inventive activity require the perspective of clinical trials as opposed to success or failure.”