Fail Safe

July 29, 2021

I want my kids to be happy in life, so I want them to fail. Summer is a great time to practice it.

As an entrepreneur, I fail all the time. As my team and I try new designs, new products, and new systems, only some of them work. The right attitude is key: Learning from our failures and then setting them aside quickly helps successes come faster. When I was a kid, though, I was so afraid to fail that I didn't risk anything, ever. I played it safe, stayed in my lane, got my A's, and was "successful." But I never pushed my own limits, and didn't accomplish much. It took me well into my 20s to realize that a comfort zone is really a velvet trap that protects us from both risk and reward, but once I was free, I was free.

Most schools are not safe places to fail. It would be great if they were, but they probably can't be, with limited time and resources and a large population to serve. Summer, though... Summer is a GREAT time to practice the special art of failing. Outside of school, kids can try new things without consequences if they don't work out. You can help by encouraging your kids to blast off in a direction they hadn't considered. They can build a straw rocket or a stomp rocket or a pop rocket. Or write poems and plays and songs and perform them in the backyard for an audience of stuffed animals. Or they can learn to cook: With all of the produce ripening, these days, anyone can mess around with food at minimal expense. If it tastes yucky, no problem, but you never know until you try.

Summer is a time of no grades and few consequences... so it's essentially a nice soft sandy landing cushion for when kids close their eyes and jump into the unknown. There's still some time before school starts back up, so tell your family you have a new motto for the rest of the summer: Fail elaborately, fail often, fail cheerfully, fail safe. Let me know how it goes.

—Deb