Let's talk about failure
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Really great article on failure here:
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/mar/28/failure-success-winners-losers-tom-lamontAnecdotes and stories on ML tend to be about how successful and awesome its members are, but I'd be interested if anyone wants to own up to failure.
Share your failures here......
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@Carnival-Boy said:
Anecdotes and stories on ML tend to be about how successful and awesome its members are....
I think that that is mostly true anywhere. One of the things that I loved about my last job at the crazy hedge fund was that people really embraced failure as a learning tool. Sadly, it turned out to only be that on the surface and while the culture was all about embracing failure, management was using people's openness and use of the system for growth to make those hiding their failures advance. So it undermined the people and the company. But the idea was great.
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I'm extremely open about both my successes and failures. One of my biggest failures that I'm working on correcting is my interpersonal communication with coworkers. I have no issues dealing with customers. I've always been good at dealing with customers but dealing with my coworkers was always tougher for me. I can also be quite stubborn about doing things the way that makes sense to me, which doesn't mean I'm wrong a lot of the times about my way being the best, but understanding that people choose to do things inefficiently, or inefficiently as I perceive them, befuddles me but I am working that sometimes that's someone else's call.
My biggest struggle right now is dealing with my two assistant managers at Staples. One wants to do everything he can to set me up to fail, and yet I'm outselling everyone despite that, including him, and I'm only part-time. My other assistant manager is purely ops but he and I don't work well together. It took some time and explaining from a very understanding sales manager to help my original ops manager learn how to work with me. Ugh...
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One other thing that I count as both a success and a failure is how I deal with criticism. Many people I think feel I ignore everything everyone else says and do whatever I want. That's not true. I take all criticism/advice under consideration but that doesn't mean I decide to apply it. The problem is that many times when I want to apply advice I've been given I don't change quickly. So I work to make progress but it's not an overnight process for me.
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I haven't really had any failures. Not that I'm proud of that as I think it reflects a weakness on my part in that I don't take enough risks. I'm too scared of failure to try. My grandkids will probably question why I've managed to live through not one, but two technology bubbles and still didn't make a fortune.
I've failed to take a few opportunities that I was presented with over the years that in hindsight I should have. But life looks easy with the benefit of hindsight, right?
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@Carnival-Boy said:
I haven't really had any failures. Not that I'm proud of that as I think it reflects a weakness on my part in that I don't take enough risks. I'm too scared of failure to try. My grandkids will probably question why I've managed to live through not one, but two technology bubbles and still didn't make a fortune.
I've failed to take a few opportunities that I was presented with over the years that in hindsight I should have. But life looks easy with the benefit of hindsight, right?
Hindsight is pretty much always 20/20...
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Anyone who says they haven't failed is lying. Troubleshooting in general is only determined by failures. Its all about how you handle failure.
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Since so much of success and failure is luck, you maximize your chances by trying as often as possible:
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I'm not lying! Honest!
It depends how you define failure. Take a common stat like "80% of ERP projects fail" (I made that stat up, but I hear similar ones all the time).
How do we define failure there? For me, I ask the following questions:
- Was there any down time when the system went live?
- Did we lose any customers?
- Did we lose any revenue?
- Did it go live more than a few months of the original stated go-live date?
- Did it go over 20% of budget?
- Did anyone get killed?
If the answer to all those is 'no', I treat the project as a success.
Whereas the CEO might ask:
- Did we realise all the benefits the ERP salesmen promised us in his original proposal?
If the answer to that is no, he will treat it as a failure.
Different people, different definitions. Failure depends on what you set as your expectations. I generally have low expectations from life, so am often pleasantly surprised
But if, as a friend of mine did once, you give up your well paid job and spend two years of your life developing an app and then sell about 100 copies, by anyone's definition you have failed. It doesn't make you a failure, but it makes your project a failure.
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@Carnival-Boy said:
I'm not lying! Honest!
It depends how you define failure. Take a common stat like "80% of ERP projects fail" (I made that stat up, but I hear similar ones all the time).
How do we define failure there? For me, I ask the following questions:
- Was there any down time when the system went live?
- Did we lose any customers?
- Did we lose any revenue?
- Did it go live more than a few months of the original stated go-live date?
- Did it go over 20% of budget?
- Did anyone get killed?
If the answer to all those is 'no', I treat the project as a success.
Whereas the CEO might ask:
- Did we realise all the benefits the ERP salesmen promised us in his original proposal?
If the answer to that is no, he will treat it as a failure.
Different people, different definitions. Failure depends on what you set as your expectations. I generally have low expectations from life, so am often pleasantly surprised
But if, as a friend of mine did once, you give up your well paid job and spend two years of your life developing an app and then sell about 100 copies, by anyone's definition you have failed. It doesn't make you a failure, but it makes your project a failure.
I would say you have to define failure from one of two perspectives: that of how you view the project, and how those you report to view it. While it may be a technical success, or your part of the project, the goal of the project (like improved productivity) may be a failure. In terms of how it relates to you, it's a success. Maybe to the business it's a flop, but that doesn't diminish your success.
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@Carnival-Boy boy that sounds like my last EHR migration. I answered all of those questions with a NO, but the CEO asking did we get everything the vendor promised, lower staff requirements, faster turn around in reimbursement, etc - that would be a resounding NO as well.
Is it a failure, as you said.. it just depends.
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One of the reasons I'm hesitant to chase a dream of mine is because working with computers has spoiled me. Troubleshooting it is almost completely risk free compared to many other fields! Made a mistake? Hit the undo button. Waste the VM and roll a fresh one. You get the idea.
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@MattSpeller said:
One of the reasons I'm hesitant to chase a dream of mine is because working with computers has spoiled me. Troubleshooting it is almost completely risk free compared to many other fields! Made a mistake? Hit the undo button. Waste the VM and roll a fresh one. You get the idea.
Yeah, doesn't quite work that way with medicine or finance...
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@thanksajdotcom or rusty old cars
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I become a certified electrician years ago just because of how much I had to deal with it for concerts and video productions with 200amp-500amp three phase distributions. Anyway you can't make too many mistakes with that without it biting you in the butt - hard. I've seen way to many people get hurt and a few killed over careless stuff.
Saw a couple people get killed from making mistakes with boom lifts as well. People try to take short cuts and move them without lowering it first but they bounce a lot and can tip over.
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@thecreativeone91 said:
I become a certified electrician years ago just because of how much I had to deal with it for concerts and video productions with 200amp-500amp three phase distributions. Anyway you can't make too many mistakes with that without it biting you in the butt - hard. I've seen way to many people get hurt and a few killed over careless stuff.
Saw a couple people get kills from making mistakes with boom lifts as well. People try to take short cuts and move them without coming lowering it first but they bonce a lot and can tip over.
Yup...
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@Nic said:
Since so much of success and failure is luck, you maximize your chances by trying as often as possible:
LOL, you maximize your chances, but taking more chances. But you maximize the chance of success as much as your chance of failure
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Nic said:
Since so much of success and failure is luck, you maximize your chances by trying as often as possible:
LOL, you maximize your chances, but taking more chances. But you maximize the chance of success as much as your chance of failure
Ah yes, good ole variance...
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@thecreativeone91 said:
Anyway you can't make too many mistakes with that without it biting you in the butt - hard. I've seen way to many people get hurt and a few killed over careless stuff.
Can confirm, 120v across the chest does not tickle.
Was building a variable voltage power supply, just got to testing it. Forgot to unplug it when I had my left hand on the case (ground) and right hand grabbed a hot line. 0/10 would not do again.
