If I Fail More Than You, I Win!

I came across this quote from Seth Godin recently and I have been
thinking about what it means in education.  You need to take chances and get out of your
comfort zone to accomplish great things. 

Consider the following…

Steve Jobs created more terrible technology than me – he wins!

Oprah Winfrey has asked more stupid interview questions than me – she wins!

LeBron James has missed more game winning shots than me – he wins!

Schools were set-up for the industrial revolution.  Do this activity, get it perfect, move on to
the next task.  However, the jobs that
our students will have in the future will not require them to do things this
way.  Computers will do that work for
us.  The new “connection economy” will
reward the “artists”, the people who can come up with new ideas and make
connections.  That kind of work requires
that people will fail in order to really achieve the success they pursue.

Another way to think about this is a student gets an A on every
assignment, in every course through school. They graduate and write their first
blog post or create their first video and people say it is terrible they will
not be able to deal with this failure. We need to teach them that it is okay to
fail and provide opportunities for them to step outside of their comfort zones
to do so.