As a handicapper, part of Joe Drape’s job is to predict the winner of the Kentucky Derby.

Every year.

In the New York Times.

Drape, an award-winning sports writer for the Times, knows the horse racing industry inside and out. Joe knows about breeding a horse. Joe knows about evaluating track conditions. Joe knows more about the gastrointestinal intricacies of an equine and their potential effects on the outcome of a race than most people. Joe knows horse racing. But since picking Monarchos to win in 2001, he is coming up on a decade long losing streak. O-fer. Donut.

So, ok. It’s not an ideal situation for anyone to go that long without being right, let alone someone who does this for a living. (Did I mention it was the New York Times with its 900,000 daily circulation?) We all know that being “right” is valued. But as I was reading the article it occurred to me – isn’t there also a value in being willing to sometimes be wrong?

What does that have to do with marketing? Everything. Because the only way to get anything right, including advertising, marketing and PR endeavors, is to try and be willing to fail sometimes along the way.

No, it isn’t good for your ego. No, it isn’t always a streamlined process. No, it might not be cost-effective in the short term, although I would argue that learning from your mistakes can be very cost effective in the long run. But the fact of the matter is – you have to be willing to try things, even if it means sometimes being wrong. If you want to be successful, that’s just the way it is.

As a result of his willingness to sometimes be wrong I would argue that along the way Joe has been an advocate for horse racing, made a career out of following his passion & sharing it with millions of readers and learned the value in being the one who is willing to stick your neck out sometimes.

As I look back at the clients I have worked with, the ones that were successful were the clients that, among other things, were OK when there was an idea that didn’t work. Not only were they OK with it, they actually VALUED it. Because they knew there was a value to the process. There is an upside in “trying” as much as in “succeeding.”

But before this becomes a debate about mediocrity – hear me out. Because as with most things in life, there is a right way and a wrong way to go about failing.

1)    Do Your Homework. Do your research; engage consumers; ask your co-workers about their experiences. Make sure you have good reasons for trying something and make sure that when you look back, you will see that you were at least headed in the right direction. Then go for it.

2)    Be Methodical. Once you decide to go for it, make sure you think of everything and then force yourself to stop. Take a moment. And think about what else you haven’t thought about. An idea that doesn’t work happens. But falling flat on your face because you didn’t want to do the little things it took to be prepared is not OK. Regardless of the outcome.

3)    Be Self-Critical. Chronicle every part of the process and when it is done be willing to take the time to gather the team and have an honest conversation about what worked and what didn’t. Learn from it. What didn’t you account for? What took longer than you expected? What skill sets was your team missing? What questions should you have asked?

As Joe Drape points out, it’s human nature to want to be right. But that doesn’t mean you need to be afraid of being wrong. Doing the steps above will set you up to have the best possible outcome. And if that doesn’t happen, the second best possible outcome is to understand why.

I’m not suggesting that we don’t strive for success. Quite the opposite. I believe that greater success is achievable if we leave some room for the possibility of failure. Because when done right, being willing to be wrong allows you to learn about your business, your customers and, most importantly, how to do it better next time.

We need to be OK with asking questions. We need to be comfortable not knowing all of the answers. We need to be willing to create an environment where “trying” is just as valued as “succeeding”.

Then we need to be willing to go forth – and sometimes –fail.