Too BIG to Fail?

Posted by guest blogger BroKen

Too big to fail. Too BIG to fail? What does that phrase mean really? Was the Brontosaurus too big to fail? Was the Titanic too big to fail? Some people thought so. Those who think anything today is too big to fail are doomed to find out they are wrong.

One problem is that we as a people have become so terrified of failure that we will do almost anything to avoid it. And that terror and avoidance guarantees our failure. That's right. It's a paradox. Embracing failure means eventual success. Worshipping success and fearing failure insures a mangled, smoking wreck at the end of the line. 

The phrase "Failure is not an option" was born of crisis. In the midst of a crisis, the phrase is beautiful and inspiring. But as a motto for life; a cultural touchstone; a management style, the phrase is a lie and a disaster. Failure is not only an option, it is inevitable. The risk-takers, the entrepreneurs, the innovators are the ones who know that what they learn from failure become seeds for future success. They are better for it. In fact, without some failure they never succeed.

But failure means hardship and we Americans can't have that. No, our children must have more stuff than we did. Charlie Brown's friend Lucy speaks for us when she says, "I don't want any downs. I only want ups and ups and ups." We convince ourselves that bigger is better and safer. But it's not. Ask Goliath. Bigger isn't safer and it isn't really better. But bigger is bigger, insuring a bigger disaster. As we go up and up, we get bigger and bigger, fatter and fatter, until there is nothing that can hold our weight to prevent our fall. And great will be the SPLAT thereof.

Of course, we shouldn't seek failure or even seek risk for the sake of risk. That would be sick. The gambler doesn't care about winning but only the thrill of playing. But we don't have to seek risk. There is plenty out there to find us.

And since failure is inevitable, we should seek some kind of failure management rather than failure prevention. That is what entrepreneurs do. They learn from their mistakes and profit from them. And wise ones make sure that a single failure doesn't prevent them from trying again.

One way to do that is by spreading the risk around. What if there were dozens of American car manufacturers instead of only three? Who would claim that any one of them was too big to fail? If even three of them failed, the others that are more efficient would pick up market share (and perhaps laid-off employees.) That would be a kind of failure management for the economy.

As it is, our three car companies claim to be "too big to fail" and seek a government bailout. But that's alright because we know that the Federal Government in Washington is simply TOO BIG to fail.

Comments

[Max]

Too big to fail represents a failure of anti trust law. A company too big to fail is too big to allow to exist.

[Morgan K Freeberg]

Thing I Know #287. To live a life devoid of recklessness, is the most reckless thing any thinking human can do.