Many innovative companies first failed before they became successful. Apple, for example, had its share of failures. The company used to make products that only reached a few people (Macintosh, etc.). However, Steve Jobs learned, adapted and started to create products that had a broad appeal. Today, what continues to separate Apple from others in the industry is its ability to adapt and learn from previous mistakes.

Learn from kids

I believe that human beings are creative by nature. When we were younger in kindergarten or elementary school, all we did was observe, play and experiment. However as we got older, we lost our willingness to try new things; we started to fear failure, judgment and rejection.

So how do we get back to that state of mind? How do we get the hunger to experiment or try new things again without fear of failure?

I decided to try something new every month. This month, I am learning to play guitar. However, I understand that it’s not easy to experiment and have a “carefree” attitude in the corporate world because of time constraints, the company’s culture and/or the type of responsibilities that we have.

The key takeaway from this article is that the creative process is about experimenting, making mistakes and learning from them. However, most corporations do not allow employees to “experiment” and “make mistakes”. Therefore, it is up to each one of us to make the time to learn new things.

“Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.” Henry Ford