Failure can seem like a double edged sword. It can be viewed as something terrible that should be avoided. Yet, failure is often encouraged as a valuable step along the path to success.

From time to time, failure returns to the limelight, often with a positive portrayal. More recently, a Wall Street Journal article painted failure quite favorably. The article is “He Made His Office a Monument to Failure” by Ben Cohen, in the July 20-21, 2024 issue of the paper. The article is continued on another page, where it has the headline “Shrine to Failure, and to Taking Chances.” These descriptors like “monument to failure” and “shrine to failure” portray failure very favorably.

The article tells how venture capitalist Sean Jacobsohn “decided to build his own personal monument to failure.” The article goes on to say that Jacobsohn’s Failure Museum "might be the world’s largest collection dedicated to business fiascoes, corporate malfeasance, and spectacular flops.” The collection includes things like Bear Stearns mugs and New Coke cans. According to the article, “there are more than 1000 artifacts of terrible, puzzling and downright criminal business decisions in glass display cases.”

The article says that “Jacobsohn believes there is a lesson to be drawn from every regrettable object in his collection.” According to the article, he also “developed his own framework to understand why most start-ups go belly-up.” The article says, “His main takeaway is that failure is an integral, too easily ignored element of success.” The article also says, “When he looks at start-up founders who have never tasted failure, Jacobsohn sees entrepreneurs who have never taken meaningful risks.”

As someone who has been researching business success and failure patterns for many years, I have examined numerous business failures, just as Mr. Jacobsohn has. However, my findings do not agree with his. My research finds that failure is not needed for success. In other words, according to my research, failure is not necessarily an integral element of success like Jacobsohn says it is. My findings do agree with Jacobsohn that failure can lead to learning, and that learning is a valuable ingredient for success. But, according to my research, failure is not the only way to obtain the learning that is needed for success.

In fact, near the end of the Wall Street Journal article about Jacobsohn’s Failure Museum, it points out that “one newly published scholarly paper found that the benefits of failure are greatly exaggerated.” The article quotes one of the paper’s authors saying “We’re all overestimating the likelihood that success will follow on the heels of failure.” My findings agree with this academic paper, as I find that failure is not required for the success of a business.

In the article, Jacobsohn also says, ‘VCs (venture capitalists) are not afraid to invest in entrepreneurs who have failed before.” My research does not see a problem with this. As I already said, failure can be a learning experience, but it is not necessary for learning. Previously failed entrepreneurs may very well have learned more of what they need to succeed, however, the mere act of having failed before is no guarantee of success.

As I see it, the article about Jacobsohn’s Failure Museum is just one more instance of failure glorification, which we see popularized by the media from time to time. When failure was being glorified a while back, I wrote that failure didn’t warrant such a positive perception and should not be encouraged, Now, the glorification of failure is getting media visibility once again.