Innovation's secret sauce: Less fear, more forgiveness

On Monday, the largest rocket ever built reached low earth orbit (about 170 miles above Earth’s surface) for the first time. That same day, back on terra firma, a massive, custom-built machine that can bore 280 feet below the surface was ceremonially switched on to launch an ambitious tunneling project.Despite an engine failure and a shortened mission time frame, SpaceX’s Starship successfully launched 26 satellites. The company’s next challenge will be returning the rocket back to its launch area in Texas. On the East Coast, meanwhile, the $16 billion Hudson Gateway project to build two new rail tunnels linking New Jersey and Manhattan has faced its share of technical and funding challenges. When completed, it will supplement the under-river railway links that were a technological marvel in their time – more than a century ago.Such innovative engineering projects can still capture public imagination, and for good reason. They’re both practical and aspirational, affirming a potential for progress. They spotlight new ways of thinking about material constraints as well as an ability to overcome setbacks and learn from failures. “The freedom to succeed, ... to fail, and more importantly, the freedom to try again” are a “competitive advantage,” longtime chief executive and business analyst Keith Krach wrote in Fortune magazine recently. Among other business roles, Mr. Krach led Docusign, the software company that revolutionized paper-based contractual systems used by the legal and business world for centuries. Success was not immediate or linear, Mr. Krach observed, but it was supported by the freedom to risk new ideas, characteristics that he traces back to America’s founding.“When the Founders broke from the most powerful empire in the world, success was far from certain,” Mr. Krach wrote. “The risk was real. The consequences were permanent. ... That willingness to act without guarantees became part of the nation’s DNA.”Perhaps even more important to the United States’ economic success has been how it encourages recovery and rebuilding, according to Megan McArdle, a longtime business columnist and author of “The Up Side of Down,” which examines business failure and redemption. “Failing well” requires overcoming the tendency for blame, she wrote for the Cato Institute several years ago. “Societies and people fail best when they err on the side of forgiveness.”The original Hudson tunnel project was conceived in 1874. It ran well over budget, being completed in full only 37 years later, in 1911. But its impact was transformative. SpaceX’s early rocket failures nearly bankrupted the company. But quick to learn from its mistakes, it has accounted for nearly 85% of all successful U.S. space launches. Deepen your worldviewwith Monitor Highlights.Politics with respectGet political stories with respectful analysis.There‘s a world of new ideas in everyBooks newsletter.There‘s more to life, enrich yours withCulture & Learning weekly.Follow humanity‘s discoveries withScience & Nature stories in your inbox.Gain a spiritual perspectivefrom the stories in your inbox.Want to understand the deeper impact of critical events? Learn the Monitor‘s insight.Already a subscriber? Log in to hide ads. Americans’ willingness “to risk more, and forgive more easily, than most other countries in the world,” has played a big part in their economic success, in Ms. McArdle’s view.These traits might be “often painted as weaknesses, but in fact they are great strengths,” she asserted. Why? “They are the sign of a country more invested in the future than the past.” ALREADY A SUBSCRIBER? LoginReal news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.The Christian Science Monitor was founded in 1908 to lift the standard of journalism and uplift humanity. We aim to “speak the truth in love.” Our goal is not to tell you what to think, but to give you the essential knowledge and understanding to come to your own intelligent conclusions. Join us in this mission by subscribing.