Why ‘Fail Fast, Fail Often’ is not working in the Era of AI: 5 Strategies to Succeed Faster

Imagine yourself as the captain of a ship navigating through uncharted waters during a violent storm. Every instinct tells you to steer quickly and react impulsively to each wave, hoping to find calm seas by sheer luck. But with every hasty maneuver, your ship takes on more water, your crew grows more anxious, and your destination drifts further away. This is the paradox of the “fail fast, fail often” principle that has pervaded modern business culture.

The proof that this strategy is not working is in the fact that over 90 percent of enterprises today are investing in AI projects, but less than 1 percent of those projects are actually generating ROI. In a world that demands meaningful innovation from business leaders at a faster pace, the prevailing paradigm of “fail fast, fail often” is no longer relevant. As I argue in my book, “Failing Fast?: The 10 Secrets of Succeed Faster,” we need to adopt a new mindset—one that focuses on becoming a seeker, learning from failure, and aligning with powerful market forces to succeed faster and more cost-effectively.

The Pitfalls of Fail Fast, Fail Often

The fail-fast mindset emerged as a defensive reaction to a series of significant economic downturns, such as the dot-com bubble burst in 2000 and the global financial crisis of 2008. These crises prompted a shift away from long-term strategic planning toward rapid iteration as a means to cope with uncertainty and mitigate risks. While this approach addressed some issues with the previous paradigm of waterfall project management, it also eliminated critical stages of market testing and strategic planning, leading to superficial solutions.

This superficiality manifests in several ways. When failures occur rapidly, there is little time to analyze and understand the root causes, resulting in a cycle of repeated mistakes rather than genuine improvement and innovation. Frequent failures can drain both financial and human resources, causing burnout and decreased morale, ultimately affecting productivity and innovation. Over time, this can make companies less resilient and more risk-averse. Additionally, frequent failures erode confidence in leadership, making it challenging to sustain support for new initiatives. Given these pitfalls, it’s clear that we need a new paradigm that not only embraces the lessons from failure but also fosters a more sustainable approach to innovation.

A New Approach to Succeeding Faster

Business leaders must adopt a more thoughtful and strategic approach to navigate today’s dynamic AI-powered world because artificial intelligence is unlike any other technology. It represents truly uncharted territory, poised to disrupt every industry sooner or later. Just as the internet and computers have become integral to everyday life, AI will soon permeate all aspects of our existence. The reason you should adopt this new approach and focus on getting things right faster rather than failing faster is that AI is about to exponentially change the world with unprecedented innovation and disruption.

1. Be a Seeker, Not a Bullshitter
   One of the key mindset shifts that I recommend for leaders is: Be a Seeker, Not a Bullshitter. With this mindset, your sole objective should be to seek the truth that will help you determine the likelihood of success and the probability of failure prior to embarking on a mission. This approach is crucial for overcoming the notorious confirmation bias that often creeps from your heart into your mind during the initial infatuation with a new idea. This will help you steer clear of all the hype around AI and find the right practical applications for your business. As a leader, you should encourage your teams to analyze failures deeply, understand the root causes, and identify actionable insights. This process not only transforms failures into opportunities for growth and improvement but also keeps the team focused and energized under pressure.
2. Pick Your Mr Miyagi
   If you have ever watched the movie The Karate Kid, you must be familiar with who Mr. Miyagi is. In case you haven’t, he is a wise and skilled mentor who teaches the main character, Daniel, valuable life lessons through martial arts training. To succeed faster in today’s dynamic AI-powered era, you need to find your Mr. Miyagi—not just a thought leader, but a mentor with real-world experience and significant achievements in the field you aim to excel in.

   A true mentor will offer more than theoretical insights; they will provide practical advice, guidance, and support based on their own successes and failures. Look for mentors who have navigated the challenges of implementing AI in business, those who have transformed organizations, driven innovation, and achieved tangible results. These leaders can help you avoid common pitfalls, identify opportunities, and develop strategies tailored to your specific goals and circumstances.

3. Turn Your Fear into a Superpower
   Another crucial mindset shift that you need to make requires learning how to turn your fear into a superpower. To become a successful leader, you need to strike a delicate balance between being an optimistic dreamer and embracing a healthy dose of realism instilled by your fear. Before making any important decision, you must pause to listen to what your fear is trying to tell you before deciding what actions to take and what actions to avoid. This clarity will prepare you to successfully tap into the zeitgeist, which I believe is one of the most important secrets to succeeding faster.

   The most important strategy for succeeding faster in today’s era is learning how to pick the right battles with AI. You can use your fear as a framework to pick the right battles. It is important to remember that not everything you fear is true. Therefore, you should learn to process your fear and evaluate the risk arising from it. Most often, it comes in the form of “What if” questions. For example: What if my AI project doesn’t deliver value? Now, assess the likelihood of this happening and the severity of its impact on a scale of 0-10. If both the likelihood and the severity are high, then focus on finding the answers by asking “How do I” questions. In this case, it would be: How do I ensure that my AI project delivers value?

4. Tap into the Zeitgeist
   I’m sure you have heard about the power of ‘being in the right place at the right time.’ Tapping into the zeitgeist is similar, but with a crucial difference: you’re intentional about your moves and don’t leave them to luck. Whether you are running a legacy company or a tech company, AI is the zeitgeist of this era. It’s essential to understand and leverage this trend to stay competitive. Before building anything new, invest time in studying the quality of your idea compared to the competitive landscape, and focus on objectively understanding the strength of your market timing. Depending on your business, consider which new zeitgeist you are entering and whether the status quo is about to be disrupted. Being proactive and strategic in this way can significantly enhance your chances of success.
5. What’s Your WOW Factor
   When OpenAI launched GPT-3.5, it undoubtedly wowed its target audience with groundbreaking capabilities. The sheer scale of its language model, combined with its ability to generate human-like text, understand complex prompts, and provide accurate responses across a wide range of topics, was a game-changer. This level of sophistication and versatility was the WOW factor that set GPT-3.5 apart from its predecessors and competitors.

   Just as OpenAI identified and leveraged a powerful WOW factor with GPT-3.5, it’s essential for you to pinpoint the WOW factor feature that will truly impress your day-1 customers. Instead of building for your customers, you should focus on building with your customers because AI is very different from traditional software. It is crucial for any company to maintain a WOW factor to ensure long-term success and relevance. Legacy companies like Yahoo, which were once industry leaders, have fallen behind their competitors due to the absence of a compelling WOW factor.

Final words

While failure can be a valuable teacher, the focus should be on learning, adapting, and succeeding faster rather than failing frequently. By embracing a more thoughtful and strategic approach to growth and innovation, business leaders can achieve sustainable success and build stronger, more resilient organizations. Those who embrace AI right now have the opportunity to unlock its true promise, which is more profits for your shareholders while delivering more value for the communities you serve. Most importantly, those who learn to leverage AI effectively with the five strategies mentioned above and join the race now will shape the future, ensuring we pass on a better version of it to the next generation.

Written by Luv Tulsidas.

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