Kindergarten Wisdom In A Suit?

How much leadership advice is just kindergarten wisdom in a suit?

For example, how old were you when you first heard: "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again"? Maybe pre-school?

Yet this phrase is the basis for an awful lot of the thought leadership on LinkedIn.

-- Grit? That's try again.
-- Reslience? Try again.
-- Fail Fast? Try again, but faster.
-- Tenacity? Try again slowly, and maybe call it leadership

This phrase was popularized in an 1840s school manual on practicing spelling. And it was used for centuries before that from Aesop's fables to Scottish proverbs. (full disclaimer -- i got that from Chat GPT)

And then there was Sisyphus -- the poor guy who was condemned to roll a boulder up a hill only to have to watch it roll back down -- for eternity.

The epitome of bad business practices!

So "trying again" is a very old -- and in some ways dark -- concept, especially in deal processes where you see people continuing to roll the same old rock up the same tired hill with the same weak results.

Trying again is important, but to avoid becoming like Sisyphus, it should be tempered with

-- knowing when to stop trying and start adapting,

-- knowing when to stop playing because the game isn't worth it,

-- knowing when to stop applying brute force that propagates bad practices and ideas.