Which Famous Entrepreneur would you like to see profiled? Leave a comment below and we might take you up on your idea!

Thank you for your feedback Mits and Zuzanna. I did a Richard Branson profile in March (How To Lead Like Richard Branson) so we’ll wait a bit before we do him again.

This week I decided to continue the story of Thomas Watson, the founder of IBM. I did a profile on him last May (Be Yourself – Thomas Watson, Founder of IBM) which was well received.

Watson thought about his success in plain terms. When he was once asked what the secret to all he had achieved in his life was, Watson replied, “It’s quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure. You’re thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn’t at all.”

Rather, Watson believed that failure was not only an inevitable part of the equation in the formula for success, but that it was both a necessary and also a positive stepping stone towards achieving the goals he had set out for himself.

“I have made a good many predictions about the future of our business and I have been wrong every time because I have always underestimated its possibilities,” said Watson. Despite heading one of the most powerful companies in the country of his time, Watson was not perfect. He, too, made mistakes along the way – mistakes that would cost the company dearly. But, what set Watson apart from his peers was his determination to bounce back from his failures.

In his early years, Watson was struggling as a salesman with Wheeler and Wilcox in Buffalo. He had just relocated to a new city and was finding it difficult to adjust not only to the change of environment but also to having to now sell products door-to-door. After making a particularly hard sale, Watson celebrated his success with a drink at the local pub. But, when his equipment and horse and buggy were all stolen outside the bar, his success would be transformed into a failure in the eyes of the company. He was promptly fired. Disillusioned with his prospects, it took Watson over a year to find another steady job. Was having that one drink a mistake? Perhaps, but it was never one that Watson would regret since it would start him on the path towards running his own company.

Watson was never content to take the easy road. He set his sights high and tried his best. He made some mistakes, suffered the consequences, and bounced right back. “It is better to aim at perfection and miss it than to aim at imperfection and hit it,” he said. Watson was not about to let fear of failure get in his way of achieving the impossible. For him, the impossible was not only possible, but it was indeed the only thing that was worth striving for; it was the only thing that would differentiate him and make him stand out.

Mistakes, according to Watson, were nothing to be ashamed of and were, in fact, a necessary part of the process of running a business. Both failures and successes were something to be celebrated, because both signaled effort and triumph in the end. “The man who does not take pride in his own performance performs nothing in which to take pride,” said Watson.

Therefore, the choice for Watson was a simple one. “You can be discouraged by failure or you can learn from it,” he said. “So go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because, remember that’s where you’ll find success. On the far side.”

Which Famous Entrepreneur would you like to see profiled? Leave a comment below and we might take you up on your idea!

Evan Carmichael