“Whatt?”
That was the puzzled expression from my friend when he heard about the next event that we, at The Knowledge Foundation, are organizing. That puzzlement is understandable. As a society, we have always celebrated success and looked down upon failure. Failing is taboo. So why hold an event with “that theme” asked my friend, not even wanting to say the ‘F’ word.
Why? Because, failure is the best teacher. And the real failure is looking away and not learning from it. Thus, the event. It’s an opportunity to get together and share our experiences and learn from each other. The tag line for the event exactly emphasises that. Learn. Share. Succeed.
FailCamp is a one day friendly unconference where people get together to share and learn from other’s experiences. FailCamp will attract people who are brave enough to acknowledge their failures and people who have the thirst to learn. These are two qualities that make a person real interesting and those are the folks that you’d want to move with.
Many times I’ve seen people succeed because they aren’t afraid to fail. Fear makes us tread the safe path which may not be the most exciting. The camp is an attempt to celebrate folks who had the guts the try out the extraordinary, even if it means they didn’t succeed. It’s a celebration of not being afraid to fail.
It’s also a celebration of perseverance. I love what Michael Jordon said, “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
Gosh!
If you’re interested, head over to http://www.barcamp.org/failcamp . (The password is C4mp )The capacity will be consciously kept small, around 50 to 75 participants. We’ve found this to be the sweet-spot for a closed door, interactive session. As always, the basic rules apply. No passive spectators. Everyone must be prepared to speak. And even better if you can help out with organizing the event.
