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Learning from mistakes - 13th October 2023

In Washington DC, there’s a Museum of Failure. Johanna Guttmann opened the art show. Guttmann wants people to think about failure in a positive way.

Johanna Guttmann: "The products that we are saying that they are failures are, are subjective, debatable, but it is about that conversation. So we are sort of having fun with it, we want to take away the stigma from it. So I think the fun factor makes it much more attractive to people."

The Museum of Failure began in Sweden in 2017. It shows ideas from many famous companies. These companies made mistakes in the past.

Starbucks had a coffee drink with olive oil. But people didn’t like it. There was a Trump Monopoly game. But it was too difficult. Not many people understood it. Oreo biscuits tried different flavours. But they weren’t popular.

Johanna Guttmann: "I’ve heard that one of the most disgusting things, not featured here, is the barbecue chicken wings - it’s rather vile."

Guttmann doesn’t want people to feel bad about failing. People can learn from failure. It’s an important step to success.

Johanna Guttmann: "The goal of the exhibition is the conversation about failure, and destigmatizing failure and to a certain extent, embracing it and understanding that it is a very important component if we want to innovate and solve big problems in the world, we're going to have to take some risks and try different things."

At the Museum of Failure, visitors can share their failures. They write them on a note. But it’s hard for many people. They want to hide their failures. Guttmann says social media makes it harder. It’s too public.

Johanna Guttmann: "Today with social media, I believe that it's harder to fail. I think that people feel their failures are sort of amplified on social media. And it sort of follows you and it seems maybe larger than it actually is."