Defeat and Innovation

Met up with Mr.Hibara from Ritsumeikan yesterday day with the entrepreneur group yesterday.

An interesting person, looks very intellectual with his designer's rectangular glasses, but he cracked some jokes and he laughed a lot. As another Japanese who has graduated from US graduate institution, it was very good for me to catch up with him to his view and learn about his footsteps.  He quit working at a commercial bank after 7years and went on to do a PhD in the US, and then taught in Canada for 4 years, and now he has taught at Ritsumeikan for 4 years and he will be moving to Waseda in September. Sounds like a good career path. 

What was interesting was the email communication I had with him afterwards. He repetitively mentioned during dinner that I will not have to 'hurry'. I took that to mean that I will not have to hurry as long as there is internal imminence attached with it. However, what he meant was that I should not be discouraged by any downs/failures that I will face in the future (for instance, now, as I cannot find my job!)...and don't get too bogged down and keep on fighting to go forward. Failure in the micro-level (or even macro-level) will help one succeed in future.  

How important is it to fail in order to succeed in innovation? 

Or is the perspective of 'failure' already a pessimistic sentiment that hinders great innovation?

Kazuhiko Tomita's "Zasetsuryoku", mentions the importance to fail...to be immune to short-term setbacks...I think that's probably what Mr.Hibara was getting at as well.