Why do we as Indians fail to innovate?

This thought always bugged me, pushing me to find an answer to this question, so having observed this in my own life, having seen enough and more of it around in corporate organizations, social organizations and entrepreneurs I decided to put down my thoughts and observation.

How long will you allow your child to stay in grade 1? Maximum a year, not more than that....Why? If he stays for more than a year he's a 'Failure", something which has been a taboo in India over the ages. It is just not accepted to be a failure in our culture. If you do not make it to be a Doctor or an Engineer you are a failure...wondering what India would be full of doctors and engineers ...scary!!!

So you see "Failure" or to fail is not accepted for us since our childhood, now here arises a question: Why do we fail in the first place? Do we Choose Failure? So here is what I've observed: We fail when we do not have the required skills to do a particular task, think about it! If I had the skills to do a particular task, I'd probably NEVER fail at it, now why is it that we not not have the skills? We have never done that task in the past, its something NEW. More often its not the Fear of Failure; its the "Fear of Rejection"

Let me cite an example, if I was to be put in a figher plane for the first time in my life and asked to fly it with no relevant experience or skills, will I fail? YES I will! Why? Cause I do not have the skills to do it, I've NEVER flown a fighter plane ever in the past, its NEW thing all together.

So somewhere in this journey of Life, when to fail is a taboo:

• we FEAR to explore new avenues in life
• we FEAR to explore new career options
• we FEAR to innovate
• we FEAR taking risks
• we FEAR exploring new business opportunities
• we FEAR entrepreneurship
• we FEAR, we FEAR, we FEAR!!!

So whats the solution? Lets change our Belief System regarding 'Failure", lets learn to embrace it, learn to accept rejection (what an Oxymoron). Lets take one step at a time, lets learn to fail in small things, it does not hurt much to fail in small things! Lets learn to explore new things, Lets Innovate!!!

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