Inspired in part by “How to Fail”, Valeria Maltoni created a personal list of “25 Ways to Fail and Come Out on Top”. Her in-depth personal list of lessons from business and life adds many new points to the conversation about learning from failure, and I wanted to take the time to bring out a couple points that resonated with me.

Don’t let planning stop us down from starting:

1/ Lean into the Project – being a team player is great, but sometimes all the meeting and planning slow you and your team down. By the time you are called to implement, there is no juice left in you or your team.

… Some of the planning and process mania is a placebo for managing risk. The other placebo effect is trying to get everyone on the same page. How about working it, leveraging people’s passion, and pushing through the dip?

Opposition is a positive signal:

15/ Embrace resistance – if everyone agrees and nobody pushes back, it’s not different enough. I’ve also come to believe that opposition is often an indication that you’re onto something. Have you found that to be true?

This is also valid for listening to those who disagree with you. They are going to teach you something you did not know before.

Share:

21/ Share what you know with others – let them build on it, improve it, amend, give you feedback. This is not only valid for social media. It works in many areas of work and life. Success is becoming more and more about social capital and trust, and not about keeping the cards close to the vest.

My own personal problem right now?

22/ Take on only so many projects – yes, this will probably be a problem in organizations where people are expected to be “jacks of all trades”. But you know what they say to complete that sentence you are “master of none”.

When you don’t leverage your strengths, you find yourself off balance and ineffective.

More on producing rather than perfecting:

25/ Stop trying to be perfect – this was the underlying message of The Big Moo and it is our grand finale. When you work hard at being perfect you miss all of the great ways to fail your way to success.

What’s the biggest thing you’ve learned through failure?

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How can you read “How to Fail”?

• Read on the web.
• Download the eBook PDF.
• Read (and download) the PowerPoint presentation on Slideshare.