Some while ago, the chief executive of UBS told bankers there that henceforth “it was OK for them to make mistakes”. A culture in which everyone was petrified of taking risks, Sergio Ermotti said, wasn’t in the interest of the bank or its clients. “How mature, came the response. How refreshing to hear a bank chief acknowledge that risks need to be taken and honest mistakes will sometimes be made.” But mistakes are never OK – and “they are particularly un-OK in banking”. This nonsense is an export from Silicon Valley, where “fail fast and fail often” is what passes for wisdom. “Errors have been elevated to such a level that to get something wrong” is seen “as more admirable than getting it right”. This “glorification of failure” is based on two psychological misapprehensions: that we learn from our mistakes, and that the fear of making them paralyses us. Both are untrue. Sometimes people must take risks, and sometimes things will go wrong. But it serves no one, least of all the individual concerned, to “make light of their disasters”.  (Lucy Kellaway, Financial Times).

Perhaps a little tough. It depends so much on context. If it’s just a mindless gamble with other people’s money, then that is an absolute no- no. But every businessman sometimes has to take a risk.

Faced with the appearance of the Apple Mac and the rapid decline of the drafting supply market, I took the risk of launching a French range of fine art products onto the market, choosing products that complemented those of the well-established market leader, Winsor & Newton, rather than compete item for item. I hired six salesmen. Success? Modest. Effort? Huge. Outcome: when the company was sold the new owner scrapped the initiative. I had underestimated the conservatism of the customers. But I had to try; just to give up and walk away would have been pathetic. The company now specializes in the educational supply market. That change, too, must have been a gamble, but then new owner had lots of money to make it.