Why difficulties make better solutions

‘Funky in the Furnace’ was a motto I used to have when I was going through a tough time. The old analogy of iron sharpens iron and a furnace purifies gold. The harder the journey, the better the view. You have heard them all.

But there is some truth in this. You only begin to fully understand a process when it is not working and needs some special attention. The more attention you give that process, the better it becomes. I am always wary of something that works the first time. It is not that easy.

I am not condoning that we look for issues and fix what is not broken, but the correct value of innovation is to go to market as soon as you have something that you are not ashamed of and get feedback on what needs to be enhanced. This client-centric iteration is how many platforms work. It is better to get something out than try and wait until it seems perfect, then go.

Note: This does not apply to life-threatening ventures such as space shuttles, plans and brain surgery, but you get what I am saying?

I have long ago lost the fear of failure. I embrace it, we celebrate it, and even encourage it in our teams. It means that we are trying. Learning. Improving. The harder we try, the more we fail, and so improvements can be made, and we can move on and upwards towards a better solution.

The main obstacle to all of this is our Ego. Ego gets in the way of progress, and we look for a culprit to shout at or fire because of the failure. Maybe we should all just set our egos aside, look towards the horizon and fail forward towards our desired destination. Better to get there bruised than not get there at all.