05 Oct Go Ahead–Say the F-word
I am a big fan of using the F-word in the office. I think it would help everyone to throw it around a bit more, so it wouldn’t be viewed as obscenity.
Many people cringe when they hear the word FAIL. I use it quite often, as it works so well in many situations. Fail this, fail that, I fail to understand, you failed me, fail everything. The list goes on and on. But why is the word interpreted so negatively? Mark Zuckerberg once said,
So many businesses get worried about looking like they might make a mistake, they become afraid to take any risk. Companies are set up so that people judge each other on failure.
I agree with Mark that people and companies are afraid to fail. What’s so bad about failure, and who determines what a failure is for you? When I left Corporate America to pursue fulltime volunteer and board service, some thought I was working through a failure; that I somehow was foolish to realize what I was giving up. Even when I faced setbacks during my reentry into the paid workplace, I considered this decision a success because it was right for me.
A failure can set you on the path you were meant to follow. The first failure I recall was losing out to Jody Reed (yes former Boston Red Sox Jody Reed) for the student council vice-presidency in fourth grade. My tagline was, “Don’t be tacky, vote for Jackie.” It was obvious politics wouldn’t be in my future, as my message fell flat on the elementary-school crowd. However, with this “fail,” I experienced my first savory taste of marketing, which led me to creating taglines and memorable branding messages for companies and clients throughout my career.
Why is fail considered to be such a bad word? I say fail, and fail often. Tell your team to go out there to try, to move forward. So what if they fail? They did something, and that brings up another four-letter word I live by, the D-word: DONE.