EMBRACING FAILURE AS A STRATEGIC MODEL

I have had actually written this blog piece several years ago, in response to an email exchange with award-winning innovator and also author of  Innovate or Die: A Personal Perspective on the Art of Innovation, by Dr Jack V Matson.

It was in connection with the concept of  'Intelligent Fast Failure', or IFF, which he had orginally conceived in the early nineties, as part of the engineering curriculum design for The Penn State University (The Leonard Center for Innovation & Enhancement of Engineering Education.

He had sought my personal views, by posing the following questions:

- what is your experience with the IFF concept?

- has it been difficult for others to grasp?

- do you know of people who have used it successfully? if so, how? in what ways?

I have had  come to realise, with a little bit of wisdom on hindsight, that my broad understanding of the IFF concept came from few major strands, prior to reading his wonderful book, 'The Art of innovation: Using Intelligent Fast Failure', which was the precursor to Innovate or Die.

#1) Over the years, reading the life stories of inventive minds like Thomas Edison, Alexander Grapham Bell, The Wright Brothers, Henry Ford, Albert Einstein, Paul MacCready, James Dyson, as well as entrepreneurial minds like Richard Branson, Sim Wong Hoo (Creative Technology), Ronald Sim (OSIM), etc., especially understanding how they had dealt with various failures in their own unique ways;

#2) from the 'Money & You' seminar in Adelaide, Australia, during the early nineties, from where I had learned of the "axiom": 

"The greatest failure in life is the failure to participate in your own life."

#3) reading about the global iconoclast and futurist R Buckminster Fuller and his great work, especially when he had chosen to dedicate halff of a century of his remaining life to working for global humanity, as documented in his wonderful book, 'Critical Path' as well as manifested in many of his patented artefacts e.g. geodesic dome, Dymaxion map, just to name a few. 

It was actually his  personal experiment as 'Guinea Pig B' (B for Bucky as he was affectionately known to most people); one of his "axioms" stood out, among many others:

"There are no failed experiments; only unexpected outcomes".

[Note: Bucky had failed miserably in several business ventures. In fact, he had also failed to honour his last personal commitment to his daughter, who later died in his arms, as he had spent too much time boozing.]

#4) eventually reading Dr Matson's 'The Art of Innovation', from which I had picked up two superb insights:

i) move as quickly as possible from new ideas to new knowledge, by making small & manageable mistakes (read: "learning experiences");

ii) keeping multiple experiments going on simultaneously that require minimal investment with the idea that one of these might bloom first;

I also took the opportunity to point out to Dr Matson that, while most "successful" people had approached "learning from failures" as launch pads for renewed actions after the "failures" had happened, he had established "embracing failures" as a strategic mental model to allow people to fail forward and fast in an intelligent and fearless manner.

That's to say, his IFF concept is proactive and anticipatory. That's the distinction I see.

On that note, and with all the understanding that I had gained from the foregoing exposures, I had started my small post-corporate-world ventures during the early nineties, as follows in one go:

- promoting seminars from overseas;
- writing a subscription newsletter;
- setting up a small book store;
- creating a strategy consulting business;

Sadly, my first two ventures ran only for about two years, and ceased immediately after that, but the knowledge and experience gained allowed me to try out the design and development of my own seminars and workshops, which went off well, following a slow start.

Then, the foregoing change, plus the remaining two ventures, became my "bread & butter" lines.

Frankly, as I had told Dr Matson in my response that, I don't think it would be difficult for people to grasp the concept of using "failures as learning experiences", or "bouncing back from failures", so to speak, but whether they could understand the distinction from his orginal IFF concept would be something else.

As a nation, at least from my personal perspective, I reckon Singapore had been a great example of the "embracing failures to move forward" philosophy, especially when Singapore was kicked out of the then Malaysian confederation in mid-1965, and also when the British colonial forces pulled out completely in the early 70s or so.

The complete historical events had already been documented in Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew's memoirs, From Third World to First: The Singapore Story 1965 to 2000.

As for the knowledge of individuals from the "failures as stepping stones to success" perspective, I told Dr Matson that the published stories of:

- the Malaysian businessman Billi Lim in his book, Dare to Fail;

- the late Malaysian entrepreneur Lim Goh Tong, of the Genting Group, in his autobiography, My Story; and

- the chairman of global technology outfit Creative Technology, Sim Wong Hoo, in his semi-autobiography, Chaotic Thoughts from the Old Millennium;

would be worth pursuing.

Dr Matson was delighted with my response. He wrote back:

"Thank you so much for your insightful response. You placed IFF in exactly the correct context. 

Many others have commented on failure and its meaning in retrospect.

 As you point out, my spin is a proactive embracing approach to failure as the price of knowledge aquisition."

In reality, as I thought about it further, 'Intelligent Fast Failure' is in fact a rapid learning methodology.

Unlike our traditional school system, where we learn the lesson first, & then take the test . . . with IFF, as applied in the real world, one takes the test first, in order to get the lesson.

In layman terms, this is often known as the "university of hard knocks".

As a strategic model for a venture, irrespective of whether it is business or professional or even personal, it nonetheless takes personal courage in dealing with the perceived fear of failure, a strong conviction in self-efficacy, and most importantly, the personal willingness to play, explore and experiment in its execution.

Drawing from my own personal experience, I reckon another defining factor is the focus on primary objectives set out at the beginning of the venture, with the added operational flexibility in the final approach to reaching those objectives amidst unexpected changing circumstances.

A VERY INSPIRING STORY ABOUT ONE MAN'S PERILOUS JOURNEY TO CONCEPTUALISE & BUILD ASIA'S BEST INTERNATIONAL CASINO RESORT!

Imagine you are enjoying the cool breeze while sipping tea with your good friends on a 1,500m mountain-top facility, which is some four to five hours drive away from where you are living.

Next, imagine there is a similar mountain, even higher at 1,800m, located about 58km away from where you are living.

Now, picture yourself as a hard-working contractor, but you are now in your 50s, with some money from your previous building projects.

Next, think about conceptualising & building a beautiful holiday resort on the mountain-top.

Experts from the Public Works Department confirms in writing that it would take 15 years just to build the access road to the mountain-top, because the mountain is surrounded with dense virgin jungle & inaccessible rugged terrain.

One more thing: you have got to go back to the sixties, where construction machinery & equipment were not what they are built today. Worst still, you speak no English.

Can you do it?

In reality, many Malaysian entrepreneurs could only see total madness & extreme foolery in undertaking such a risky endeavour, but one simple man, already in his 50s, eventually took on the arduous initiative of executing his dream project during the mid-sixties.

Cheating death six times along the way, & functioning as project manager, engineer, financial controller, labourer & trouble shooter, all rolled into one, he almost single-handedly built the access road to the mountain-top facility (on Gunung Ulu Kali, Genting Sempah) in less than four years, with all his own money, & without any financial aid from the Malaysian Government, except for their nod of official approval.

The first phase of the project with the hotel was eventually completed in the early seventies.

Today, the mountain-top facility is Genting Highlands Resort, Asia's Best International Casino Resort.

The man who took on the almost insurmountable challenge during the mid-sixties was the late Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong, founder of the diversified Genting Group, which today has a combined market capitalisation of US$14 billion as of 30th September 2008.

For me, his acumen was beautifully exemplified in his acute power of observation as well as his keen nose for smelling good opportunities. These are often the critical attributes of successful creators or entrepreneurs.

This book, 'My Story: An Autobiography', by Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong, founder of the Genting Group, Malaysia, has captured Tan Sri's humble journey, starting with only US$175 in his pocket while coming to Malaysia as a young man from Anxi, China.

Written in the form of an autobiography, in a straight-forward, succinct & yet refreshingly original way, this book has documented:

- his early struggles during the Japanese occupation;

- his early business ventures during the post-war years;

- his friendships & relationships with people he cared about;

- his successful attainment & brilliant execution of government building & construction contracts;

- his perilous endeavour in building the Genting Highlands from scratch;

- his responsiveness, decisiveness & ingenuity in problem solving, at both strategic & tactical level, over the years;

- all the way to his diversifying of the group into other businesses during the later years, e.g. Star Cruises; - until his final handing over of the controlling reins to his second son, Kok Thay, in late 2002;

In a nut shell, this book offers many valuable entrepreneurship lessons, not so much from the 'high-tech/IQ' perspectives, which one would normally find in other books, but a lot from the 'high-touch/EQ' perspectives, which are more akin to Chinese entrepreneurs.

There is an ostensibly clear emphasis on building 'guanxi' (relationship), which is typical of most if not all Chinese entrepreneurs.

In fact, another useful entrepreneurial trait from Tan Sri is what the Chinese calls 'dan da xin xi', be bold but cautious. In fact, his pragmatism & steadiness were often seen by his peers as liabilities.

Another powerful trait is the power of conviction. Tan Sri said it best:

"When I make a decision & believe strongly that it is the right one, I will go head on with it, no matter what odds I am up against . . . Once a decision is made with sound reasoning, the rest is hard work, determination & perseverance to see it through to fruition."

You just got to read this book to get to know all about the author's entrepreneurship insights from the university of hard knocks.

Nevertheless, for the benefit of readers, I definitely like to pull out one last one from his book, which said it all, truly reflecting his power of vision:

"The Genting project basically fitted my idea of an ideal business: no one was interested in it, which meant no competition".

As Tun Dr Mahathir, former Malaysian Prime Minister, has confirmed in his Foreword:

"Tan Sri's struggle can be considered part & parcel of Malaysia's (economic) development experience." I fully concur.

Tan Sri's story is a very inspiring one for all of us: beginning with nothing to his name, turning adversities into opportunities, maximising his brain-power, taking calculated risks & confronting naysayers & skeptics through sheer audacity, tenacity, perseverance & more importantly, simplicity & humility.

I salute you, Tan Sri!

[This book was released in 2004 to coincide with the 40th birthday anniversary of the Genting Group. This book is still available in local bookstores. Otherwise, try Amazon.]