Good leaders know the value of failure

The greatest leaders of all time have done it - they have failed spectacularly, and climbed right back up to claim their place in history.

If not for their failures, perhaps their subsequent successes would have been less amazing? Maybe, maybe not. Although some have tried to play the game of what-ifs, it is impossible to change an outcome in history with the suppositions of today.

Much has been said about the winning qualities of a leader, and in recent years, management gurus have been extolling the virtue of failure. Silicon Valley, the wellspring of innovation and disruption, has bandied around such mantras as "fail better", "fail faster", "fail forward" and their variations, although in reality, these incantations are not meant to be taken at face value. "Fail faster", for instance, does not describe the foolhardy squandering of money on quirky projects that are doomed to failure from the start. Rather, it advocates taking appropriate risk, not failing too miserably, picking up valuable lessons along the way, and then quickly moving on. Investors will not take too kindly to seeing the loss of their hard-earned money on irresponsible schemes.