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As a leadership advisor, Ive worked with countless executives who wrestle with failuresome fearing it to the point of paralysis, others glorifying it without extracting real lessons. Failure is inevitable. Growth is optional. The difference between leaders who thrive and those who stagnate isnt the absence of failureits how they respond to it. Fear of failure holds many organizations back, stifling creativity, slowing innovation, and fostering a culture of risk aversion. But failure, when embraced correctly, is one of the most powerful catalysts for growth. The problem? Too many leaders either avoid failure altogether or celebrate it without reflection. The key is courageous failurethe kind that fuels insight, builds resilience, and sets the stage for transformative breakthroughs. Why leaders fear failure Despite the lip service given to failing fast, many leaders still operate in fear of mistakes. The reasons are clear: Ego and Identity: Leaders often tie their worth to their success, making failure feel deeply personal. When setbacks occur, they dont just see it as a professional challenge but as a reflection of their own competence and value. Cultural Stigma: Organizations reward wins but often penalize failure, even when it leads to progress. This creates an environment where employees become risk-averse, opting for predictable outcomes over bold innovation. Short-Term Pressures: Quarterly earnings, investor expectations, and performance metrics discourage experimentation. Leaders feel the pressure to deliver immediate results, making it difficult to justify long-term bets that may initially appear as failures. Psychological Safety Issues: When failure is punished rather than examined, employees hide mistakes instead of learning from them. This lack of psychological safety stifles open communication, preventing valuable lessons from emerging and limiting the organization’s ability to adapt. When fear dominates, organizations fall into a risk-averse cycledefaulting to safe decisions, missing opportunities, and becoming stagnant. The courageous failure framework Not all failures are created equal. Reckless failures, failures due to negligence, lack of preparation, or poor execution, should be avoided. But courageous failuresthose that come from thoughtful experimentation, calculated risks, and boundary-pushing innovationare the seeds of progress. Leaders who want to leverage failure must foster an environment where learning is valued more than perfection. Heres how: Define What Good Failure Looks Like. Not all failures are worth celebrating. A good failure is one that teaches something valuable, aligns with strategic goals, and moves the organization forward. Clearly define the difference between reckless mistakes and courageous failures. Reframe Failure as Data. Instead of seeing failure as a dead end, treat it as an information-gathering exercise. Amazons Fire Phone flopped, but the underlying technology led to Alexas developmentone of its most successful innovations. Encourage Micro-Failures. Instead of placing massive bets that can sink an initiative, create low-risk experiments to test ideas before scaling. This approach minimizes damage while maximizing insights. Normalize Transparent Debriefs. Establish post-failure debrief rituals that focus on what was learned, not who was to blame. Bridgewater Associates, for example, operates with radical transparency, analyzing mistakes openly to prevent them from repeating. Publicly Recognize Productive Failures. If employees only see success being rewarded, theyll avoid risk. Celebrate well-intentioned failures that led to key learnings, just as you would a big win. Lessons from leaders who failed forward When Sara Blakely started Spanx, she made countless mistakes in manufacturing and marketing but saw each misstep as part of the process. She credits her father for encouraging her to talk about what she failed at each dayinstilling a mindset of resilience and growth. Another great example is Oprah Winfrey, who, when she was fired from her first TV job, used the setback to refine her approach and ultimately built one of the most influential media empires in history. Companies that fear failure more than stagnation are already losing ground. The leaders who fail forward fasterlearning, iterating, and growingwill define the future. So, before your next big decision, ask yourself: Am I playing it safe to avoid failure, or am I willing to take a calculated risk that could lead to something extraordinary? Failure isnt the opposite of successits the bridge to it. The only real mistake is not learning from the ones you make along the way.
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E-Commerce
Sensitive financial and health data belonging to millions of veterans and stored on a benefits website is at risk of being stolen or otherwise compromised, according to a federal employee tasked with cybersecurity who was recently fired as part of massive government-wide cuts.The warning comes from Jonathan Kamens, who led cybersecurity efforts for VA.govan online portal for Department of Veterans Affairs benefits and services used by veterans, their caregivers and families. Kamens was fired February 14 and said he doesn’t believe his role will be filled, leaving the site particularly vulnerable.“Given how the government has been functioning for the last month, I don’t think the people at VA . . . are going to be able to replace me,” Kamens told the Associated Press Monday evening. “I think they’re going to be lacking essential oversight over cybersecurity processes for VA.gov.”Kamens said he was hired over a year ago by the U.S. Digital Service, whose employees’ duties have been integrated into presidential adviser Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, which is leading the downsizing effort. Kamens was a digital services expert and the VA site’s information security lead when he was fired by email at night, along with about 40 other USDS employees, he said.Millions of people use the VA.gov website monthly, Kamens said, and the department is responsible for securing private health and financial information including bank account numbers and credit card numbers. Others on the team will focus on protecting the site, but his expertise can’t be replaced, he said, noting he was the only government employee with an engineering technical background working on cybersecurity.“VA.gov has access to a huge number of databases within VA in order to provide all of those benefits and services to veterans,” Kamens said. “So if that information can’t be kept secure, then all of that information is at risk and could be compromised by a bad actor.”Peter Kasperowicz, a Veterans Affairs spokesman, said the loss of a single employee wouldn’t affect operations, and noted that hundreds of cybersecurity workers are among the department’s staff of nearly 470,000.Meanwhile, more than 20 civil service employees who’d also previously worked for USDS resigned Tuesday from DOGE, saying they refused to use their technical expertise to “dismantle critical public services.”Kamens said he was required to have a background check and a drug test before he was allowed to access any system containing veterans’ data. He said he doesn’t understand why Musk and DOGE shouldn’t have to jump through the same hoops.“I don’t think they should have access to that data,” Kamens said. “These are people who have never been background-checked. They’re not confirmed to be trustworthy.”Kamens also said he’s worried that DOGE is “trying to break down the walls of decentralization” that have kept data isolated in individual agencies. Centralization, he said, could increase the chances for abuse. He also described confusion since DOGE became involvedpeople didn’t know who their manager was, work became isolated, and people were “frozen out.”“The only motive that I can think of,” Kamens said, “is exactly because they want to be able to use that data to harm citizens that they perceive as enemies of the state.” Brian Witte and Rodrique Ngowi, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
For transgender students involved in a very special project at a culinary school in Pakistan, there is more to a class than just learning the art of cooking.Neha Malik used to dance at parties and weddings for a living and was, occasionally, a sex worker. Since January, she has been enrolled in a new course for the trans community at the Culinary & Hotel Institute of Pakistan.The free six-month program in the city of Lahore, Pakistan’s cultural capital, welcomed its first group of 25 trans students in January; the second group of 25 began training on Feb. 1.Now, Malik, 31, dreams of working as a chef in Dubai, the futuristic, skyscraper-studded city in the United Arab Emirates.She never misses a class. “I am so absorbed in learning that I don’t have time to dance anymore,” she added.Many Pakistanis have entrenched beliefs on gender and sexuality, and trans people are often considered outcasts in the conservative Muslim-majority country. Some are forced into begging, dancing and even prostitution to earn money. They also live in fear of attacks.The U.N. development agency said last year that the majority of trans people in Pakistan reported experiencing violence or abuse and that most reported being denied employment opportunities because of their gender identity. Just 7% were employed in formal sectors, the UNDP added.Trans women in public office and the media have raised awareness about a marginalized and misunderstood community, and overall, the community has seen some progress in the protection of their rights.Supreme Court rulings allow them to self-identify as a third gender, neither male nor female, and have underscored they have the same rights as all Pakistani citizens.Last year, Lahore got its first ride-sharing service for trans people and women in an effort to protect them from discrimination and harassment, and in 2022 Pakistan launched a hotline for trans people.“Society usually looks down on us,” said Malik. “We have to change this mindset. Now, people come up to me and ask what I do when they see me in a chef’s coat and hat.”Since classes started, students file into the Lahore culinary school with backpacks and beaming smiles, swapping their colorful clothes for white uniforms.However, it’s a struggle. They each get a monthly stipend of 8,000 rupees, around $26 nowhere near enough to live on as a student.“How can we survive on that when my rent is 15,000 rupees?” said 26-year-old Zoya Khan. Her utility bills swallow up most of it, she said.So she performs at a few events a month.“I used to earn a decent amount (from dancing), I won’t lie,” she added. But “there was no respect in it.”“Why do we come here? It’s because we see hope,” said Khan, who wants to start her own business after graduating a roadside cafe.Nadia Shehzad, the institute’s chief executive, said the project will help the trans community, a “rejected and ignored sector of society” get equal recognition.The school is trying to get government officials to help the aspiring chefs with visas to go abroad for work, Shehzad said. There are also talks with local hotels and restaurants about jobs once the students graduate with wages of up to 30,000 rupees, or about $107.Still, it’s not easy for for trans people to leave behind dancing, begging and sex work for the culinary program, said Shabnam Chaudry, a trans community leader.Many wonder if society would give them work or if people at restaurants would eat food cooked by trans chefs.In the past, Chaudry said she had seen many trans people taking makeup and sewing courses, only to fail to find jobs afterward and be forced to return to begging and dancing to survive.She is also concerned about their prospects of finding a job: Pakistan has hundreds of thousands of young people with skills and degrees who cannot find work.“In the face of this tough competition, who will give jobs to trans people,” Chaudry asked. “People are not ready to shake hands with us.” Babar Dogar, Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
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