More Praise for Whoever Makes the Most Mistakes Wins “It’s difficult to imagine a subject more compelling to most human beings than success and failure. Farson and Keyes present a refreshingly original point of view on the subject that illuminates a paradox and challenges our assumptions about how to tell one from the other.” —MILTON GLASER, PRESIDENT, MILTON GLASER, INC. “Truth always seems to come in small paradoxical packages. This delightfully readable package by Farson and Keyes brilliantly fuzzes the frontier between success and failure, and thus reveals the fusion of opposites as the essence of truth.” —HARLAN CLEVELAND, PRESIDENT EMERITUS, WORLD ACADEMY OF ART AND SCIENCE “Whoever Makes the Most Mistakes Wins promises to become a classic in the genre of modern wisdom literature that includes Eric Berne’s Games People Play and Laurence J. Peter’s The Peter Principle. Its unexpected turns, liberating humor, and shrewd observations about social creativity and business innovation have the flavor of Mark Twain mixed with Zen and Taoist ribaldry. This is a wonderful book!” —MICHAEL MURPHY, FOUNDER, ESALEN INSTITUTE, AND AUTHOR OF GOLF IN THE KINGDOM “As we move into the twenty-first century, an age of increasingly revolutionary technological advances, the concepts of success and failure must be reinterpreted and transcended if we are to be truly innovative in our ideas and discoveries. Richard Farson and Ralph Keyes provide an insightful and original examination of these concepts and of the critical need to redefine them in the postmodern world.” —RICHARD C. ATKINSON, PRESIDENT, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA “Fabulous! I love this book. It’s like a Zen koan: concise, wise, inspiring, and instructive. It is a modern guidebook for how to embrace paradox and free yourself from fear of failure. In a time when we’re subjected to a host of irrelevant, sappy, or overly simplistic self-help books, this book provides intelligent, truly useful advice.” —MARY BOONE, PRESIDENT, BOONE ASSOCIATES, AND AUTHOR OF LEADERSHIP AND THE COMPUTER AND MANAGING INTER@CTIVELY “As one who has led a large association with many employees, I wish I had had this book years ago. It is timely and something every reader will find helpful at the personal, interpersonal, and managerial levels. This is a rare ‘must read’ book that is also easy to read.” —HORACE B. DEETS, FORMER EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF RETIRED PERSONS “From my perspective in the field of art and design, the ‘lucky mistake’ is often the uncredited key to any significant breakthrough. In their new book, Farson and Keyes introduce the business world to the designer’s most secret ally.” —JOHN MAEDA, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF DESIGN AND COMPUTATION, MIT MEDIA LABORATORY “Richard Farson and Ralph Keyes have hit on something big with this book. I say that as a man with a large and embarrassing pile of mistakes littering the road behind him. The fact is that some of those screw-ups hurt, some even kicked off a crisis, but all of them helped me in life. Failure is to success as a second wing is to a bird. You need it and so does he. It is unlikely either of you will fly without it. Pick up this smart, influential book and find out how those mistakes you’ve made, the ones you thought crippled you, can work to your advantage.” —AMBASSADOR RICHARD CARLSON, FORMER DIRECTOR-GENERAL, VOICE OF AMERICA, AND FORMER PRESIDENT AND CEO, CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING “This is a valuable book for just about anyone in our competitive world. The authors make a clear case for understanding that failing precedes almost all great wins in our society, and that tolerance, if not love, of failing creates the most successful environment. There are many interesting anecdotes and arguments throughout this most persuasive book.” —JANE ALEXANDER, ACTRESS, AUTHOR, AND FORMER CHAIRMAN, NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS “This book is a great read—interesting and enjoyable. Its title can be taken literally—whoever makes the most mistakes will, in fact, win. I think most successful managers reach the same conclusion, but late in their careers. Farson and Keyes have finally explained this successful style of management, one many of us have observed. I certainly hope their message reaches the business schools, so graduates can start off on the right foot. Where were they when I needed this book?” —RAYMOND ALDEN, FORMER PRESIDENT, SPRINT “This book is a welcome antidote to the numbing conventional wisdom about what constitutes corporate success and failure. It shows how to make the business environment both vital and humane.” —RICHARD POLLAK, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, THE NATION, AND AUTHOR OF THE CREATION OF DR. B: A BIOGRAPHY OF BRUNO BETTELHEIM “In an age where everyone is looking to win with simple formulas, it is so refreshing to have a more thoughtful and wise discussion of what winning and losing really mean, and how learning is more important than either one.” —EDGAR SCHEIN, SLOAN FELLOWS PROFESSOR OF MANAGEMENT EMERITUS, MIT SLOAN SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT THE FREE PRESS A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. 1230 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10020 Copyright © 2002 by Richard Farson and Ralph Keyes All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. THE FREE PRESS and colophon are trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc. Designed by Paul Dippolito Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Farson, Richard Evans, 1926– Whoever makes the most mistakes wins: the paradox of innovation / Richard Farson and Ralph Keyes. p. cm. 1. Technological innovations. 2. Success in business. 3. Success. I. Keyes, Ralph. II. Title HD45 .F357 2002 658.4’09—dc21 2002019861 ISBN-10: 0-7432-5442-2 ISBN-13: 978-0-7432-5442-7 Visit us on the World Wide Web: http://www.SimonSays.com For my grandchildren, John, Page, and Savannah —Richard Farson For Gerry Cohen, who has always supported me, even when I made mistakes —Ralph Keyes Contents Acknowledgments Introduction 1 The Success-Failure Fallacy Tangled Line •Says Who? •Why Success Resembles Failure, and Vice Versa •Failure Pride 2 The Agony of Victory, the Thrill of Defeat Like Making Love •Peak Experiences •Craving Excitement •Crisis Lovers •Sweet Adversity •Management by Calamity 3 Nothing Succeeds Like Failure Bards of Failure •Splendid Failure •Productive Mistake Making •Success Disguised as Failure 4 Nothing Fails Like Success Marooned by Success •Everybody Hates a Winner •The Personal Price of Success •Feeling Like a Fraud •Looking Back on a Great Future 5 The Success Hobble The Ashes of Success •Roads Best Not Taken •Don’t Just Survive 6 Innovating with Attitude The Risk-Friendly Workplace •Sprinters and Milers •Wild Ducks •Minnesota Mining and Mistake Making 7 Managing in the Postfailure Era Treating Success and Failure Alike •Earning Empathy •Sharing •Barnraising 8 Fear Management The Underlying Fear •Making Friends with Fear •Putting Fear to Work 9 Samurai Success Winning Isn’t Anything •Zen Warriors •Jackson’s Way •No Regrets •How Do You Measure Success? •Beyond Success and Failure Acknowledgments We would like to acknowledge help from the following people: For ideas that contributed to our own thought processes: Carlos Campbell, Michael Crichton, Dawn Farson, Hallock Hoffman, Doug Land, Kate Ludeman, Jim O’Toole, Edwin Nystrom, Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, Charlton Price, John Shlien, Jim Skelly, Hall Sprague, Andrea-Lawrence Stuart, and Susan Waitley. For helpful critiques of an early version of the manuscript: Andrea Adkins, Lou Heckler, and Robert Scherer. For acute editing: Noel Greenwood and Burton Beals. For encouragement and helpful suggestions, including the suggestion that we write this book: Margret McBride, the agent who represented it. For capably shepherding the book to publication: our editor, Fred Hills.