“Fail Better” and personal mottos
Saw a great quote today by a commenter over at Mark Watson’s blog by Samuel Beckett:
Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better
It’s from Westward Ho!, a play I’ve never seen, so apologies for having entirely divorced it from its context. But as a standalone quote, it appeals.
I’m not much of a quote collector, but I like this one. In an industry where we spend a lot of time defining, and then measuring, success – I like the idea of positive failure. I can think of plenty of times where a statistical failure has become a massive success story. And without insinuating that that is what Beckett was trying to say, I’m going to take advantage of his useful ambiguity to make him say it anyway.
