conversations
What’s in a conversation? It’s the beginning of new ideas. A sharing of personal stories.
A start of meaningful relationships. This Pulse section called Conversations
highlights opinions, ideas, visions and personal anecdotes of CEOs and leaders from across industries.
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The Innovation Paradox Co-Author
RALPH KEYES
o-author of The Innovation Paradox: The Success of
Failure, The Failure of Success, Ralph Keyes argues
that failure and success are nothing more than
“masked impostors.” One’s idea of failure could be
another’s concept of success, especially since most great
success stories start with tales of setbacks.
Keyes, who appeared on the pages of several high-profile
magazines like TIME Magazine and The New
Yorker, has also graced talk shows and news
channels like The Tonight Show, 20/20, CNN, The
Today Show and Oprah. In this Conversations, he
unmasks these two impostors called “success” and
“failure.”
PULSE: The first chapter of your book is titled “The
Success-Failure Fallacy.” What exactly is the fallacy of
success and failure?
Keyes: The fallacy is that we can distinguish clearly between
success and failure. Anyone who reviews their so-called failures and successes realizes that the two aren’t always easy to
tell apart; what seems to be a failure can lead to a success
and vice-versa. That’s why Kipling called triumph and disaster
“those two impostors.”
P: According to your book, “nothing succeeds like
failure.” How do you define failure?
K: As we usually use that term, failure is hard to define. Its
usual definition implies that failing is flat-out negative. Yet,
successes routinely are built on what were thought to be fail-
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November 2012
ures. Even the most catastrophic commercial blunder of
modern times—the introduction of new Coke—was regarded
by [former] Coca-Cola President Roberto Goizueta as a needed
kick in the pants to steer his company in a new direction, one
that enjoyed enormous success. The only real failures are
those that never lead anywhere, except to further setbacks.
P: You said: “There is agony in victory.” Why is
success, at times, an agonizing road towards failure?
K: On a personal level, success presents all sorts of challenges: staying on top once you’ve reached the top; coping
with the envy of friends who are less successful than you;
feeling worthy of the success you’ve achieved. A robust literature exists on the fear of success that routinely sabotages
even those who want desperately to reach the top. As a