Daring to Stumble on the Road to Discovery

At the recent 1)Aspen Ideas Festival， the New York Times 2)columnist Thomas L. Friedman said that when he graduated from college， he was able to go find a job， but that our children were going to have to invent a job.

Jobs， careers， valued skills and industries are transforming at an 3)unheard-of rate. And all of the change and uncertainty can make us 4)risk-averse and 5)prone to getting stuck.

Despite these realities， our education system emphasizes teaching and testing us about facts that are already known. There is much less focus on our ability to discover， create and 6)reinvent. The same often 7)holds true in the workplace. Perfection is rewarded， while mistakes are 8)penalized. It’s no wonder that “failure” has taken on a deeply personal meaning， something to be avoided at almost any cost.

The skills we’re taught work well for familiar situations， yet we’re trained to perfect our ideas and use the past to predict the future with 9)linear plans in a nonlinear world. As such， we need a completely new 10)mind-set. Linear thinking is a death 11)knell for creativity.

When I worked as a 12)venture capital investor， I found that most successful 13)entrepreneurs don’t begin with perfected ideas or plans—they discover them. Entrepreneurs think of learning the way most people think of failure.

A prime example is Howard Schultz， one of the most successful entrepreneurs of our time. When he started what would become Starbucks， he modeled the first stores after coffeehouses in Milan， a new concept for the United States in the 1980s. He was clearly 14)onto something， but the 15)baristas wore 16)bow ties—which they found uncomfortable—and customers complained about the nonstop opera music and menus that were written primarily in Italian. And the early stores had no chairs. Mr. Schultz routinely acknowledges that he and his team made a lot of mistakes. But they learned from them， as they did from countless other experiments.

Consider another example—what it takes to create great comedy. Editors at 17)The Onion， the humor publication， estimate that they try out hundreds of headlines each week before they finally decide to use only a small percentage of them.

Even the most successful 18)stand-up 19)comedians， like Chris Rock， try thousands of new ideas in front of small club audiences in order to develop a one-hour act. Some jokes fail， but Mr. Rock is willing to be imperfect; he persists night after night because every small 20)bet takes him closer to a brilliant act on the big stage.

This is how comedians and entrepreneurs must work—by making countless small bets to discover what works. The real genius is in the approach.

The same holds true for leaders， managers and 21)collaborators. They must be willing to learn from mistakes. Affordable risks should be encouraged， and small failures celebrated—these are the mark of learning organizations. Otherwise， risk 22)aversion will lead to 23)stagnation and decline.

In a time when valued skills and occupations shift constantly， we must be able to discover interests， opportunities and careers by experimenting， or by reinventing ourselves altogether.

The architect Frank Gehry， for instance， designed relatively conventional buildings for much of his early career. But inspired by how contemporary painters and 24)sculptors worked， Mr. Gehry performed a series of experiments on his own house in Santa Monica， California， during the late 1970s. Working with 25)plywood， 26)corrugated metal and 27)chainlink fencing， he built a new 28)exterior around his original house. His experiments were the 29)precursor to what would become his distinctive style. The money was good in conventional architecture， yet he decided to start 30)anew， using his own style and voice.

Invention and discovery 31)emanate from the ability to try seemingly wild possibilities; to feel comfortable being wrong before being right; to live in the world as a careful observer， open to different experiences; to play with ideas without 32)prematurely judging oneself or others; to persist through difficulties; and to have a willingness to be misunderstood， sometimes for long periods， despite the conventional wisdom. All these abilities can be learned and developed， but doing so requires us to unlearn many of our tendencies toward linear planning and 33)perfectionism.

As the technology pioneer Alan Kay put it: “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” It begins with a little bet. What will yours be?

勇于探索

在最近的阿斯彭創意節上，《紐約時報》專欄作家托馬斯·L·佛里德曼說他大學畢業那時只要去找工作就能找到，而我們的小孩卻得自己創造工作。

工作、職業、重要技能還有行業正以空前的速度發生著改變。所有的這些改變及不確定性使我們不愿承擔風險，并且容易陷入困境。

盡管現實如此，我們的教育體系仍著重于教導及考查我們那些早已熟知的事實。而我們對發現、創造及改造發明方面的能力卻關注甚少。在職場亦是如此。完美無誤會受到嘉獎，失誤犯錯則會受到懲罰。難怪“失敗”二字已深深烙印著對人不對事的偏見，幾乎成了眾人不惜任何代價也要避免的事情。

我們所被傳授的那些技能在熟悉的情況下行之有效，我們還接受了不斷去完善自己思想的訓練，憑借過往經驗，以簡單的線性計劃在這個非線性的世界里預測未來。就這點而言，我們需要一種全新的思維方式。線性思維是創造力終結的標志。

當我從事風險資本投資工作時，我發現大部分成功的企業家都不是以完善的想法或者計劃開始的——而是邊做邊發現。大部分人所認為的失敗在企業家們看來卻是學習的方式。

最好的例子要算是霍華德·舒爾茨——我們這個時代最成功的企業家之一。當他開始創業時（即后來的星巴克），他將米蘭咖啡館的運作方式運用到其早期的店鋪，這在20世紀80年代的美國是一個新概念。他的確看準了一些商機，但是當時他店內的咖啡調配員是要打領結的——這讓他們覺得不自在——另外顧客抱怨店內那播個不停的歌劇，也抱怨菜單以意大利文為主。……