Experimentation is great, once you do it
We avoid failure. Most of my life, I spent time avoiding my urge to try things because of risk aversion. If I wasn’t good at it, I didn’t need to do it.
I missed out on a lot because of that, so imagine my joy when I recognized how much I learned from trying it, and why I plan on investing in heavily.
“If you double the number of experiments you do per year you’re going to double your inventiveness.”
That quote is from Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon. I find it truthful. Some of my biggest personal development jumps happened when I asked the question, “what can happen if I?”
It isn’t easy
Experimenting isn’t easy by any means, and it runs against the grain for most people. “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it” is an easier way to live your life, considering if the job gets done, no one finds you.
It forces you to put a light on yourself, both internally and externally. You deal with the idea of being wrong. You go in blind, because even if you have a hypothesis, chances are it isn’t right.
Nor is it free, because they cost time, money, or productivity. It is a learning process and it gets stressful. If someone wants to win now, nothing seems worse.
But the win isn’t for now, it’s for later
The most successful companies today invest in experimentation. They know that it isn’t an investment just on the product, but it’s people.
I don’t know of a single experiment that didn’t help me down the line. Experimentation is an investment, more than anything else. Not only is there a chance to learn something about the product, idea, or process but the person working with you on the experiments (or yourself).
From the desk of Adam Thomas 