Quote

How important is failure - yes, failure - to the health of a thriving, innovative business? So important that Ratan Tata, chairman of India's largest corporation, gives an annual award to the employee who comes up with the best idea that failed.

Naveen Jain

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Naveen Jain
Age: 65
Born: 1959
Born: September 6
Businessperson
Entrepreneur
UP
Business
Awards
Annuals
Comes
Failed
Annual
Best
Corporations
Corporation
Ideas
India
Award
Giving
Failure
Chairman
Important
Health
Largest
Gives
Innovative
Tata
Idea
Employee
Thriving

More quotes by Naveen Jain

Image
There are as many ways to help another human being as there are people in need of help. For some, the urgent need is as basic as food and water. For others, it is an opportunity to develop a talent, realize an idea, and reach one's full potential.
Naveen Jain
Image
My children have been learning lessons about entrepreneurship since they were in kindergarten, and these lessons are paying off: even though they are only 22, 18, and 15, they have already collectively launched three nonprofit organizations and several new businesses.
Naveen Jain
Image
I believe that entrepreneurs play an unmatched role and the accelerating pace of innovation is transforming the face of global challenges. You must think about the solution differently when you're trying to impact 1 billion people rather than affecting 1 million people.
Naveen Jain
Image
In the business world today, failure is apparently not an option. We need to change this attitude toward failure - and celebrate the idea that only by falling on our collective business faces do we learn enough to succeed down the road.
Naveen Jain
Image
I believe that incentivized prizing is the best solution to help unlock the answers to the some of the profound problems that plague our planet.
Naveen Jain
Image
I have seen humility in many of the finest leaders I have met the world over. And indeed, it is embodied in the warm, engaging and quintessentially successful spirit of Sir Richard Branson.
Naveen Jain
Image
Great entrepreneurs focus intensely on an opportunity where others see nothing. This focus and intensity helps to eliminate wasted effort and distractions. Most companies die from indigestion rather than starvation, i.e. companies suffer from doing too many things at the same time rather than doing too few things very well.
Naveen Jain
Image
Philanthropy is not about giving money but about solving problems. While well-meaning, the idea of writing a check and calling it 'philanthropy' is extremely short-sighted and, unfortunately, extremely pervasive.
Naveen Jain
Image
It's really easy to create a $1 billion company - you just have to solve a $10 billion problem.
Naveen Jain
Image
My own philanthropic efforts have always included an educational element, whether it's expanding opportunities to educate a promising mind or extending the brain's ability to learn.
Naveen Jain
Image
Philanthropy without scale and sustainability is like any other bad business that will simply wither and die on the vine.
Naveen Jain
Image
Sometimes a faint voice based on instinct resonates far more strongly than overpowering logic.
Naveen Jain
Image
I started off with a company, InfoSpace, with my own funding. The company was listed among the most successful companies and I went on to start Intelius and Moon Express. Now, I focus my time on using the skills of an entrepreneur to solve many of the grand challenges facing us in the areas of education, healthcare, clean water and energy.
Naveen Jain
Image
My parents didn't believe in luck. They believed in hard work and in preparing me to take advantage of opportunity. Like many parents, they taught me to be generous but never to depend on the generosity of others.
Naveen Jain
Image
The United States of America became the envy of the world because we welcomed the best and brightest minds from anywhere on the planet and gave them the opportunity to succeed.
Naveen Jain
Image
Each one of us has the power to be the change we want to see in the world, making the world a better place.
Naveen Jain
Image
Athletes at all ages are bigger and stronger than ever before. And they are being encouraged - sometimes even incentivized, as we recently learned was the case on at least one National Football League team - to play to injure.
Naveen Jain
Image
Because I was poor I had one special advantage. When you are poor, and basic survival is your concern, you have no alternative but to be an entrepreneur. You must take action to survive just as you must take action to seize an opportunity.
Naveen Jain
Image
I believe we need a more opportunistic and democratic approach to lunar exploration, now that we're shifting from U.S. government-sponsored space exploration to private expeditions.
Naveen Jain
Image
Call it the Tiger Mom effect: In the business world today, failure is apparently not an option.
Naveen Jain