Talk about failure
What marketers can learn from skateboarders?
I found myself accidentally in a park in Toulouse (France), soaking up the French sun. In the middle of the park was a fountain with a big slab of concrete, where some 20+ skateboarders were practicing tricks.
I’d never had much interest in skaters, but I enjoyed the sun, so I stuck around.
What I learned that day about skateboarding, is worth sharing:
Skateboarders will crash and fall… all the time!
All. The. Time.
In fact, if you’re a skater and you land 1 in 5 tricks, you’re already an exceptional skater.
For skateboarders, failure is part of the culture.
The only thing that matters is that you fall in such a way that you can get up and keep going.
What’s the point of this, you ask?
Us marketers can learn a thing or two from these guys.
Failure means you’re trying.
Failure means you’re getting better.
Failure means you’re working towards success…
Sometimes things are hard, but the only way to get them right is to try things.
What if we adopted the skater mindset?
What if we embraced failure as a necessary part of getting better?
The best skaters aren't the ones who never fall. The best skaters are the ones that fall the most, but keep going anyway. It’s about flow and tempo, rather than playing it safe.
What matters is that you land the trick on the 7th try — not that you crashed on the first 6 attempts.
This attitude doesn’t always work. If you drive a car, there’s no room for failure — you need to play it safe, or you’ll end up killing people.
But in other areas of life, there’s sometimes plenty of room to take risks.
Sometimes what matters is not that you fail 9 times, but only that you got it right the 10th time.
High-tempo testing is like that.
For testing new ideas, you want to have a similar attitude. Out of 10 tests, maybe only 1-3 see a positive result. But that one winning test would likely make up for multiple failures. As long as you keep jumping back on the board, progress is inevitable.
All the changes that didn’t work, you can revert.
You can get back on the board, and go again.
But the changes that end up being winners (even if it’s 1-in-10)... those you can lock in, and keep building upon further.
Sometimes failure costs almost nothing, while success can be compounded.
That’s the environment that you want to be in. That’s how natural selection will lead you to excellence, over time.
So be more like a skater.
Set big goals that feel scary.
Try audacious new tests that push you outside your comfort zone.
Don't just go for the easy wins; attempt the big tricks with high risk and high reward.
Crash often and crash hard.
But never stop pushing yourself to get back up with even more determination.
Over time, you'll be amazed at the progress you can make. Even a 30% success rate compounds into incredible results if you test aggressively.
As Seth Godin says, “If you're not falling, you're not learning.”
So get out there and fall more.
You might just land on something great.
Best,
—Pieter