There are old pilots, and there are bold pilots. But there are no old, bold pilots.

So goes the saying. It’s about risk, isn’t it? The idea that if you take risks, eventually your 9 lives are going to run out and you’re going to fail. If this is in a mission critical line of work, then that failure could be final.

In business, though, you can make the argument that if you’re not failing, you’re not moving quickly enough. Business – especially innovative, disruptive business, is about seeing the opportunity, moving quickly, executing and getting the timing right. You don’t have the luxury of endless iterations while you try and improve to the stage of ‘perfect’. Perfect doesn’t exist.

To have tried and failed not only makes you a better person, it makes you richer for the experience.

Take risks. Fail early, fail often. Then, when you do succeed, you’ll have succeeded quickly, before everyone else, and you have the right window to keep improving while you make hay.

That’s the the promised land for bold pilots, old and young, I think.