There is Joy in Failure. 

I am an accomplished cook although not professionally trained. Few things give me more pleasure than cooking and creating something new. There is nothing like a new ingredient or a riff on an old idea to get my juices flowing.

Over Thanksgiving, my daughter Fanny and I cooked together, and we experimented with an idea. We wanted to take the essence of a twice-baked potato that is a family tradition and make it in a new form.  The recipe was featured in Walter Magazine last month, and it has always been a family classic.

We wanted to see if we could make it into a potato cake with all the same flavor – just in a format like a crab cake.

We had a small problem when Fanny saw that my flour, baking soda, and baking powder were all out of date. She didn’t want to use them in the recipe, so we had to improvise and use coconut flour.

Oy vey. What a train wreck.

The finished cakes were chalky and not anything as we imagined.

I must take responsibility for the failure because I should have refreshed the pantry with some new ingredients. Fanny said she had made a variation on these before, and they turned out great – but she had necessary ingredients and they were fresh.

The Joy of Failure

I didn’t get the potato cake I’d hoped for, but I did get a wonderful reminder about the joy of failure. Like most things I experience and notice, there was a marketing lesson baked inside.

  • If your product or brand doesn’t stumble occasionally, you aren’t taking enough risks.
  • If you are so comfortable with your marketing approach that you aren’t screwing up by testing something different, you risk standing still – something far worse than a little mistake.
  • If you are listening to the same advice that you heard years ago, maybe it is time to stick a toe into some new waters.
  • If you are striving for perfection, perhaps you are playing things so safely that you’ll never get to the next level.
  • If you feel afraid, that’s a good sign that you are taking an appropriate risk.

Failing fast and quickly is okay. There is no sin in trying as long as you learn from the mistake.

Try this advice:

  1. List three new ways/paths/methods to sell your product or service that scares you a bit.
  2. Write them down on a piece of paper and put all three ideas in a hat.
  3. Pick one.
  4. Try it.
  5. After six months, what did you learn?

What is something new you will fail at today that will help your brand in the long run?


Are you playing it too safe? Let’s talk about some new approaches to marketing to grow your brand. 919 720 0995.

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Photo credited to the firm Levy & fils by this site. (It is credited to a photographer “Kuhn” by another publisher [1].)the source was not disclosed by its uploader. Train wreck at Montparnasse Station, at Place de Rennes side (now Place du 18 Juin 1940), Paris, France, 1895