“If you want to increase your success rate, double your failure rate.” –Thomas J. Watson
I love that quote because I believe that people learn much more from their dismal failures than they do from their screaming successes. Failures typically sting more, which necessitates changing your behavior so you don’t repeat your mistakes.
Thomas Watson started a little company called IBM and back in the 1950s, Tom had a manager at IBM that made a mistake that cost the company $600,000. No small sum, if you consider how much that would be in today’s dollars. When Tom was asked if he was going to terminate the manager, he asked why he would terminate him, as he just spent $600,000 to train him. Why would he want his competition to have the benefit of that experience?
Now THAT is progressive leadership.