Innovate and fail: learn from Google

No matter how big you are. If you innovate, be prepared to fail

Yesterday I got an email from Google HelpOuts:

“Hi Stefano,

We have some sad news to share with you today: Helpouts will be shutting down on April 20th, 2015. While this announcement was just posted on our site, we wanted you to hear the news directly from us. “

For who doesn’t know what Helpouts is here is a quick overview. Helpouts was a service created by Google on 2013 with a simple goal: connect professionals and experts with people willing to learn a particular skill. The platform is divided by topics such as “Education and Careers”, “Computers and Electronics” and many other.

I covered the launch of the website on this blog last year and I believed it was a really great idea. I have imagined a scenario where professionals and teachers could start having international classrooms worldwide, teaching from their homes. I also imagined a remote technical live assistance where companies could help clients everywhere in the world.

But I imagined wrong. And apparently Google did too.

But what happened?

Google thought to penetrate a new rising industry, the e-learning business. Today we have very famous e-learnign websites such as Udemy where  you can learn pretty much anything just from your bedroom.

Thanks to internet, we have access to millions of information and the only one limit we have is time. Everything is just a click away from us and education has never been so democratic and affordable.

Google has failed many times over the numerous investments and experiments it did. Glass is another recent example. But when you innovate, you fail and the more you innovate the more chances you have to fail. But failing is one of the fundamental and essential part of innovation.

The world most famous innovators have failed over and over again. That’s why they reached their goal and succeed. And that’s why Google is the company that is today.

Innovate and fail. To learn.