United States
In the wise words of Ellen DeGeneres, “when you take risks you learn that there will be times when you succeed and there will be times when you fail, and both are equally important.” In Australia, one of the biggest barriers to research is the stigma of failure. However, Australia needs a shift of mind and to embrace failure. This is particularly relevant for start-up entrepreneurs, who are confronted with the frank reality that new businesses are particularly delicate and can fail overnight.
Success disguises our mistakes, whereas failure gives us the chance to reflect and improve next time. Starting with the media, projects that failed should be discussed so that we can learn from them, instead of focusing exclusively on what worked. Moreover, Australia should take notes from our American counterparts, who have created ventures to push failure as a badge of honour. FailCon is one of these endeavours, promoted as a one-day conference for entrepreneurs, investors, developers, researchers and designers, it blatantly celebrates failure and encourages attendees to exchange stories of failure.
Early this month, Wyatt Roy, the Assistant Minister for Innovation, cited that changing the culture in Australia was vital to encourage a positive attitude to entrepreneurialism. “Changing culture is the biggest challenge we face,” he said. “It is probably the most important thing and it is the hardest thing for us to do.” He further added, ““We want to see a big cultural shift which embraces the entrepreneurial spirit in our collective psyche. We need to see greater co-operation between government, research, science and the private sector. We need to grow our talent pool and attract the best and brightest from around the globe.”
Could embracing failure be a step towards changing the culture in Australia to be more entrepreneurial? Indeed, whether we fail or succeed, being willing to take risks and ‘have a go’ is vital in Australia if we want to shift our culture to being more innovative. As we have mentioned previously, investing in research and development is a way to increase innovation. Although there are risks involved and failure is a possibility, R&D projects can generate valuable IP that can still assist in bringing innovation to the market. Have a chat with us today if you been involved in a R&D project and would like to see if you are eligible for the R&D tax credits.
