Sarah Kuta

When a new product totally flops1，companies usually try to switch to otherthings as quickly as possible and put all oftheir energy into developing fresh ideas thatthey hope will catch on.

But the Museum of Failure never forgetsthese flops. This traveling exhibition2， whichfirst launched3 in Sweden in 2017， has justbeen to New York City.

By collecting more than 150 commercial4ideas that didnt pan out5 fordifferent reasons， the exhibition aims tostimulate6 discussion about accepting andlearning from failure， such as New Coke，Limeade-flavored Oreo cookies and so on.

The exhibition is curated7 by psychologist8Samuel West. He sees it as animportant learning opportunity.

West says， “One of the big obstacles9to innovation10 is the fear of failure. I wasplaying with this idea， ‘How can Icommunicate the importance of acceptingfailure？”

In fact， many of the brands in theMuseum of Failure havent let one or twounsuccessful efforts stand in their way.For example， Oreo has made plenty ofdelicious new flavors， and Coca-Cola isstill thriving11.

“People feel liberated12 when they seebig well-known brands and companies thathave extreme amounts of money and skillsand experience and they still fail whentrying new things，”West said. “Big boyscan fail， so why cant we？”

Visitors can write their own failures on a“Share Your Failure”wall. West also hopespeople know that failure usually isnt as badas many imagine， and that the lessons fromfailurecould actually be important to success.

“Learning” is the keyword. To simply try， try and tryagain—without improving—isnot enough.

You fail but you gain insight13， build on it， try a different way and come backagain with something better.

West adds， “I want people to take meaningful risks and learn from them. Thatswhere the action is， when it comes to innovation： People trying something new，accepting the level of risk that comes with itand learning from it if the new thing fails—as it probably will.”

當一個新產(chǎn)品完全失敗時，公司通常會設法盡快轉(zhuǎn)向其他方面，并將所有精力投入到開發(fā)他們希望能流行的新想法上。

但失敗博物館永遠不會忘記這些失敗。這個巡回展覽于2017 年在瑞典首次啟動，剛剛?cè)ミ^紐約。

該展覽收集了150 多個因不同原因而未能成功的商業(yè)創(chuàng)意，旨在激發(fā)人們關(guān)于接受失敗和從失敗中學習的討論，這些失敗的創(chuàng)意有新可樂、酸橙汽水味的奧利奧餅干等。

該展覽由心理學家塞繆爾·韋斯特策劃。他認為這是一個重要的學習機會。

韋斯特說：“創(chuàng)新的一大障礙是對失敗的恐懼。所以我一直在思考這個問題‘我該如何傳達接受失敗的重要性？”

事實上，失敗博物館中的許多品牌都沒有讓一兩次失敗的嘗試阻礙他們。例如，奧利奧已經(jīng)制作出了大量美味的新口味，而可口可樂仍在蓬勃發(fā)展。

“當人們看到那些擁有巨額資金、技能和經(jīng)驗的知名品牌和公司，以及他們在嘗試新事物時仍然失敗時，他們會感到釋懷?！表f斯特說，“大亨都能失敗，因此為什么我們不能呢？”

參觀者可以在“分享失敗”墻上寫下自己的失敗。韋斯特還希望人們知道失敗通常沒有許多人想象的那么糟糕，以及從失敗中吸取的教訓實際上對成功至關(guān)重要。

“學習”是關(guān)鍵詞。僅僅嘗試、嘗試、再嘗試而不改進是不夠的。

你失敗了，但你獲得了深刻的見解，在此基礎上，嘗試不同的方法，然后帶著更好的東西卷土重來。

韋斯特還說：“我希望人們承擔有意義的風險，并從中學習。涉及創(chuàng)新時，重點就在這里：人們嘗試新事物，接受隨之而來的風險水平，如果新事物失敗則從中學習，因為它可能就是會失敗?！?/p>

Notes

1. flop 失敗

2. exhibition 展覽；展出

3. launch 發(fā)動；發(fā)起

4. commercial 商業(yè)的；商務的

5. pan out 成功

6. stimulate 促進；激發(fā)

7. curate 操持展出；組織演出

8. psychologist 心理學家

9. obstacle 障礙

10. innovation 新事物；新方法；創(chuàng)新

11. thriving 欣欣向榮的；繁華的

12. liberated 無拘束的；思想解放的

13. insight 深入了解; 深刻見解