The Innovation Paradox The Success of Failure, the Failure of Success [Paperback]

InThe Innovation Paradox,Richard Farson and Ralph Keyes argue that failure has its upside, success its downside. Both are steps toward achievement, and the two extremes are not as distinct as we imagine. In today's business economy, it's not success or failure -- it's successandfailure that lead to genuine innovation. History's great innovators, from Thomas Edison and Charles Kettering to Bill Gates and Jack Welch, saw failure as an important stepping-stone -- and with this groundbreaking book, you too can learn how to become more failure tolerant, more risk friendly, and therefore more innovative. Today's most prominent businesspeople agree thatThe Innovation Paradoxhas the formula for failure and success down to a science,
Make no mistake:If you're looking to reinvent yourself, your ideas, or your business model, this book is your sure-fire way to start.Chapter 1: The Success-Failure Fallacy

One must be God to be able to distinguish successes from failures and not make mistakes.

-- Anton Chekov

A management consultant wrote a brief bio for his thirtieth college reunion. In it, he included the usual information: work, family, achievements. By most measures, this man was unusually successful. He was the father of thriving children, head of a respected think tank, and author of a best-selling book. After reviewing his paragraph, however, the consultant realized that it read more like a resumé than an honest report to his classmates. Why would I write such a stilted, half-true account of my life for friends who knew me when? he asked himself.

As a lark, the consultant decided to write a longer, more candid report about what his life had actually been like. It began:

Because I didn't receive a single A in college, I couldn't get into medical school. Instead, I worked as a lifeguard, but got fired at the end of the summer. My next job, selling advertising in the Yellow Pages, wasl³e