Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It’s quite simple, really: Double your rate of failure. Y... — Thomas J. Watson

Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It’s quite simple, really: Double your rate of failure. You are thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn’t at all. You can be discouraged by failure or you can learn from it, so go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because remember, that’s where you will find success.

Author: Thomas J. Watson

Insight: Most of us treat failure like a disease to avoid at all costs. We play it safe, stick to what we know works, and treat mistakes as evidence we're not cut out for something. But Watson's insight flips this on its head: the people who succeed most aren't the ones who never fail—they're the ones who've failed the most and actually paid attention. Think about learning to cook, learning a language, or starting a side project. The person who makes ten failed recipes learns more than someone who makes two perfect ones and stops. The person who has awkward conversations in a new language actually gets fluent. Yet we often treat our own mistakes like they're shameful, when they're really just data. The uncomfortable truth is that doubling your failure rate means you're probably doubling your learning rate too. There's also something freeing about reframing this way. If you decide your goal is to "make good mistakes"—to try things that might not work but are worth understanding—the pressure changes. You're no longer gambling on success; you're investing in knowledge. The paradox is that people who can genuinely embrace this mindset, who can fail publicly without spiraling into shame, often end up succeeding faster than the careful planners. Failure stops being an ending and becomes just the messy middle of learning.