Here is an illustration of the “Fail faster” or “You can’t win all the time, but not trying surely leads to failure” mindset , coming from billionaire and New York mayor Mr. Bloomberg (article in International Herald Tribune).
[After losing on his bid to host the Olympics in New York, Bloomberg] noted that some people view losing as bad. “In the world I come from [ie business],” he remarked, “it’s another deal. You go on.”
That sort of against-the-odds confidence has been Bloomberg’s greatest strength – and greatest weakness. It has led him down treacherous paths that have landed him in political trouble since he moved into City Hall on Jan. 1, 2002. It has led others – among them his opponents in this year’s mayoral race – to question his judgment.
But it also led him, in 1981, to start Bloomberg LP, the global financial news empire that made him a billionaire. And 20 years later it led him to run for mayor on a Republican ticket with no political experience whatsoever. And win.
[...]
“You can’t have the good stuff unless you’re willing to try the big things, and if you try, sometimes you’re going to lose,” he said. “What do you do? Keep doing them.”
Like all great leaders, he is also ready to do the right things even when it leads to temporary unpopularity, understanding that eventually people end up supporting correct decisions:
His smoking ban, which infuriated bar and restaurant owners, not to mention smokers, led to taunts on the street. “There were people at parades with signs that said ‘I smoke and I vote,”‘ recalled the mayor’s communications director, Ed Skyler. But the latest polls show that more than 70 percent of New Yorkers embrace the ban.
[...] right along Tom Selleck explaining that you can’t be successful without failing a lot, or Bloomberg saying: “You can’t have the good stuff unless you’re willing to try the big things, and if you try, [...]