Failure: The hidden engine of progress

When missteps matter

It’s easy to worship success. Our culture celebrates it, immortalises it, and measures worth by it. Yet behind every “overnight” triumph lies a long trail of missteps, miscalculations, and outright failures. Samuel has spent the last eight years exploring this trail, turning the concept of failure into a lens for understanding innovation, creativity, and human progress.

“I started the Museum of Failure based on research into obstacles to innovation,” Samuel explains. “The museum itself has travelled since it opened in Sweden in 2017, showcasing hundreds of failed products, from tech mishaps to corporate flops. The main point is to spark discussion: how do we accept our own failures, and how do we learn from them?”

The museum isn’t just a collection of amusing missteps; it’s a mirror reflecting society’s complicated relationship with failure. “Society worships people who are successful, but the way to get there is full of mistakes and dead ends,” Samuel notes. “We reward the outcomes but penalise the path. That tension fascinates me.”

To engage with failure is not to glorify defeat but to illuminate a deeper truth: that mistakes are not the opposite of progress, but its prelude. In acknowledging our misfires, we create space for insight, courage, and imagination. The Museum of Failure is more than a collection of flops; it is a testament to the human spirit’s capacity to learn, adapt, and persist. Here, in the quiet contemplation of what once failed, we glimpse the blueprint of what might yet succeed.

“If you look at life from a philosophical stance, we’re all here because of countless failures, mutations that didn’t survive,” continues Samuel. “The ultimate failures paved the way for us. It’s the same principle in innovation: experimental trials are essential to creating something of real value.” Samuel often marvels at this parallel: “I sometimes like to think about just the basis for life. Those monkeys and squid and bacteria that preceded us, the mutations are the reason we’re here. The failures are what allowed evolution to succeed.”

Why some dare

Before diving into the mechanics of risk and experimentation, it’s worth considering the lens through which Samuel views failure. His dual grounding in clinical and organisational psychology allows him to see not just the surface missteps, but the underlying human behaviours, cultural pressures, and structural dynamics that shape how we approach, and avoid, failure. It is this perspective that illuminates why some individuals and organisations dare to take risks, while others remain constrained by norms, metrics, or fear of social and professional consequences.

“It could be argued that success might happen by pure chance,” he says, “but we both know that’s not enough. You need deliberate trials, learning, and reflection. Even evolution itself is a continuous process of failed experiments.”

This human instinct to take meaningful risks, even in the face of structural or societal constraints, is a thread Samuel observes everywhere. “There’s this human tendency, almost instinctive, to take meaningful risks despite the constraints of corporations or big companies,” he notes. “There’s boldness and courage in that, and I think it’s part of what defines progress.” That courage is subtle, often unnoticed, and rarely celebrated, yet it is the foundation of human creativity and innovation.

Yet, the acceptance of failure varies dramatically across cultures. “In Iceland, California, and the UK, failure is more or less somewhat accepted,” Samuel observes. “But if you look into Far East Asia, you just don’t fail. The shame associated with it is so powerful that you just don’t take those risks. You don’t innovate, and you don’t experiment.” This cultural lens shows that fear of failure is not universal, it is constructed, reinforced, and sometimes exploited by societal norms.

The implications for business, and particularly for industries like packaging, are profound. In a world obsessed with metrics and measurable success, minor improvements are rewarded, and bold experiments are often discouraged. Yet these experiments, fraught with missteps, are where transformative innovation emerges. “Even in the average corporate environment, even the coolest companies, even Silicon Valley or Scandinavian start-ups,” Samuel points out, “the culture still doesn’t reward boldness. The academic setting definitely doesn’t. Just do as you’re told, shut up, and write more papers. Don’t rock the boat.”

Samuel notes that social media and the digital age have only amplified these pressures. “Packaging today isn’t just a physical object; it’s performance on a stage visible to millions online. That visibility amplifies both praise and failure, making the process longer, more complex, and more intense.” Yet, despite the pressures, failure remains essential.