The Mistaken Path to Excellence

Most engineers instinctively
Try to avoid
Making mistakes for fear of
Being held liable,
But there is no greater
Hazard than someone
Who always played it safe,
And has no idea
Of the limits of what
He can and can’t do.
I learned early on
To seek failures,
Whether mine,
Or someone else’s,
And to milk them
For all they’re worth,
For only through
Detailed forensic study
Of those mistakes
Were the boundaries
Of my profession
Plainly visible.
One minor failure
Could invariably
Teach me more
Than a hundred
Shallow successes,
And that is the way
I built my career,
One failure at a time.