I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.  – Michael Jordan

Failure is a tricky creature in the business world.  Fail too often and you are likely to be looking for a new job, but the reality is that no one continually finds success without encountering failure.  The problem is that the fear of failure can be so strong that it prevents people from expirimenting, testing, and innovating. 

Companies need to establish an environment where failure resulting from sound business decisions isn’t punished.  Look no further than Google.  Google realizes that not every idea will be a winner but they have created an environment where its employees are encouraged and even expected to constantly innovate – which means trying new things without a paralyzing fear of failure.

What Michael Jordan knows is that if you are too scared to try, you won’t succeed.