Failure is not an option -- why not?

     "Failure is not an option" is a famous, and memorable, line from the movie "Apollo 13". I have a favorite shirt, slowly fading, with the line written upon it. Although the line exists within the movie, no one actually said it during the time of the Apollo 13 equipment failure. It is a summary/scriptline composed from a bunch of thoughts and explanations (post-event) from the NASA ground crew.
     Failure may not be an option -- but it does occur. In fact, it would be a rare occurrence, within a business environment, for failure analysis to not occur after an instance of a project or business failure. I am positive that, if I were to startup another business, I would make an entirely new set of mistakes.
     It is not currently popular, but failure analysis also is very useful within the non-business world. It is called "learning from history". It requires recording history as accurately as possible, studying that history, and analyzing what went well and what did not. (It is preferable if people choose to NOT repeat what did not go well.) All three of those steps are difficult but worthwhile.
     So, failure is certainly possible -- yet it still should not be considered an option. Within the world of computer programming, it might be considered to be the default condition. You keep planning for, and defining, all of the situations that you can think of -- and if none of those occur then it falls into the "default" case. It is the bottom basket into which all of the "not-planned-for" events fall.
     Failure occurs but it isn't planned for yet it can be (and, in business, often is) analyzed afterward. But is failure to be allowed? This often ends up being a Return On Investment (ROI) question. In the case of the human astronauts' lives in Apollo 13 there were severe limitations on materials and what could be done but, within those limitations, no effort was too much. In the case of human lives suddenly at risk because of accident or natural disaster, the cost is often analyzed only after the events have passed.
     In the case of the potential failure NOT involving human life, it is much easier to quantify the costs. These include the costs to avoid failure and the costs of having reached the point where one would call it failure (Edison once said "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.").
     It is most useful to determine first the value of success, then the odds of success, and then the amount of resources (time, money, energy) to be invested before purposefully stopping the effort. It could be argued that that would not be a failure because there is no way to know the final result if the effort continued. Yet it also would be difficult to call it a success. As the costs go up and the estimated value of success remains constant, it is a situation of "diminishing returns".
     In summary, failure is the final result when all of the plans for success have refused to come true. Failure, in itself, is not planned; it is not an option. The process of planning for failure makes it just one more planned result and if a planned result occurs then can it be failure?

I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work. Thomas A. Edison
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/thomas_a_edison_132683

I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/thomas_a_edison_132683

I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/thomas_a_edison_13268

Gambling: a matter of risk versus reward

    When you hear the word "gambling" you start thinking about casinos, and roulette wheels or maybe hands of poker. But, in real life, gambling is a matter of risk and reward. Crossing the street involves risk and the reward is getting to your destination across the street. Asking someone out for a date involves risk (emotional and, occasionally, physical) in the hopes of rewards of reciprocity of affection or friendship.
    However, gambling still is usually classified internally depending on whether one considers the risk to be voluntary or involuntary -- and reasonable depending on whether the chance of reward is sufficient to justify the amount of risk. If we think it is a high risk and does not require to be done then, and only then, do we usually call it gambling. So, games of chance are considered to be gambling but crossing the street is not.
    This isn't true of everyone. Jack Nicholson, in "As Good As It Gets", portrays someone who is all-too-aware of the everyday risks of life. He continually strives to eliminate risk by isolating himself and entering into rigid routines and being hyper-careful of hygiene and exposure. The rewards of everyday life are not enough for him to take these risks. He is "fortunate" to be able to cater to these attempted avoidances of risk because he has a lucrative occupation that allows him to do this. It is only when he sees a reward that is large enough that he increases his willingness to take more risk.
    Nicholson' s character is seen as abnormal because his awareness of risks is much greater than his recognition of potential rewards. The risks exist -- but so do the rewards that he cannot grasp. There is not a single, appropriate, balance even though there are certainly, within a given society, an expectation of being able to make "reasonable" judgements on such.
    For someone living in a war zone, the risks of doing anything rise and the potential rewards narrow. For someone with a dependable environment and financial basis, the risks seem smaller because the downside of failure is much less even if they don't achieve the hoped-for rewards.
    There are various phobias -- more specialized than those that Nicholson's character revealed -- that are still an out-of-balance reflection of the risk versus the reward. To Chicken Little, the sky may fall upon him if he goes out -- or to the agoraphobic. One person may be willing to work in high construction, balancing themselves on girders while another person may have difficulty getting onto a balcony.
    Life is a gamble. Being able to weigh the risks and rewards are more computable with games of chance than they are within everyday activities. But the risks must be taken to get to the rewards. It is part of life's journey to learn to make those decisions based on known risks and benefits.
    What risks do you see that outweigh the possible benefits?