How daring to fail offers a far better chance of success

I’ve urged my family to make a meaningful resolution and ensure that 2016 is our Year of Failure

Star Wars: The Force Awakens has now made more than $1.8 billion worldwide, breaking box-office records all over the world (AP)

Next week, my year-long pursuit of one of the City’s most powerful PR Svengalis will finally come to fruition. I’m out of my depth and my pitch could be laughed out of the room, yet two things have propelled me. First, I actually think he’ll like my idea. Second, I’m truly unworried by failure. I hope the meeting will be successful but I don’t fear rejection. And I shall banish Homer Simpson’s advice from my subconscious: “Kids, you’ve tried your best and failed miserably. The lesson is, never try.”

Perhaps the lesson is, don’t succumb to fear. Because although society is obsessed with perfection, it is also hamstrung by fear of failure: risk and diversity of opinion are neutered, ambition and creativity are stifled.

For example, there’s nothing original about last year’s two biggest films: Spectre and The Force Awakens are both loving pastiches. There is so much money riding on a James Bond or Star Wars film that the makers fear that trying something different will result in costly failure. So, they copy what worked before.

And as we enter a year of A-Levels and GCSEs, our children, forever warned that they’re entering a furiously competitive world where only the elite prosper, are in danger of succumbing to a different fear: that if things aren’t perfect they’ll have failed and missed the boat, rather than emboldening their characters by understanding what lack of success feels like.

We’re fortunate that my daughter’s inspirational headmistress is renowned for her “failure weeks”, teaching pupils how to become more resilient by learning from mistakes. When we’re very young, she says, we’re thrilled to try new things and don’t fear failing at them. We must nourish that instinct rather than abandon it as we grow older. Perfectionism, she says, is “the enemy of achievement”.

I spent years calcifying in an office, fearing I’d fail if I emerged from behind my desk. And after I was forcibly ejected from it, I found that at the very moment I should have been most afraid, I wasn’t. The shock of the new was so invigorating that risk became opportunity; throwing myself into the unknown became a cherished learning experience; failure provided fuel for next time.

And so, I’ve urged my family to make a meaningful resolution and ensure that 2016 is our Year of Failure. (“And how does that differ from 2015?” quipped my teenage son.) If failure in 2016 is our own fault then we’ll become more tolerant of human error. And if it happens despite giving it our best shot, well, that’s their loss, not ours, and it’ll be an honourable failure.

So, let’s unshackle ourselves from the cult of perfection and see that while no one wants to fail, daring to do so offers a far better chance of success.

Grant Feller is a media consultant and director of GF Media