The Finns take their innovation very seriously. In 2010, three top universities in design, technology and business were merged into an Innovation University called Aalto University. Innovation guru John Kao has lauded this as a high-level, multi-disciplinary hotbed for creativity.

With innovation being encouraged, failure is part and parcel of pushing new boundaries. The Finns also have got it covered. They celebrate Oct 13 as their National Day of Failure. Interestingly enough, it started in 2010 by some university students because they wanted to encourage more start-ups, given that the typical Finn abhors failure and won’t be inclined towards entrepreneurship.

Which leads to this question: how do you typically deal with failure? Do you have a Standard Operating Procedure you have fine-tuned or does your coping mechanism vary from situation to situation?