大象传媒

Good Morning.

I鈥檝e recently found out about the Swedish Museum of Failure. The exhibits include a women-only biro, and a perfume named after a motorbike. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a shrine to the fact that the majority of all innovations fail鈥� the curator explains. The Museum of Failure also runs events such as a failed gourmet tasting menu at a fancy restaurant, a tasting of failed beers from regional microbreweries, and a world-renowned pianist giving a concert of failed music.

I have my own personal museum of failure. You probably have yours as well. Every room is packed from floor to ceiling with exhibits, both large and small. And the cellar is overflowing with failures and mistakes that I鈥檝e either forgotten about or hidden away.聽 However the difference is that my museum of failure isn鈥檛 brightly lit, rarely brings a smile, and I鈥檓 definitely not inviting family and friends to the opening night.

Yet failure doesn鈥檛 need to be something we鈥檙e ashamed of.聽 Many people who are now considered extremely successful spent much of their lives experiencing failures that are now simply water under the bridge. 鈥淚 have not failed. I鈥檝e just found ten thousand ways that won鈥檛 work鈥� said Thomas Edison, the inventor of the light bulb. 鈥淪uccess consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm,鈥� said Winston Churchill.聽

What Edison, Churchill and others discovered was the ability to treat failure as a badge of honour: as the inevitable side effect of being human, trying our best and learning how to do better next time around. Let鈥檚 pray that each of us can learn to celebrate our museums of failure and to be more loving and forgiving of our inevitable mistakes.
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