Sweden’s Museum of Failure

Failure is not a bad thing. We have come to think of it as a lack of potential or an inability to achieve something, when in reality it is a successful attempt that didn’t work out as planned. Failure is necessary for progress and Sweden’s Museum of Failure is, in some ways, a celebration of this.

The museum’s mission is to showcase what it takes to create innovation. If the majority of attempts end in failure, why do so many narratives only highlight the success stories? This is the question Samuel West, chief curator, Museum of Failure, asked. How do we portray failure since it is such a normal part of our everyday lives? His hope was a broader representation of failure and a discussion surrounding it might give people the courage to try more often.

The museum has multiple locations, such as Helsingborg, Sweden; Hong Kong; Munich, Germany; and, previously, Toronto, Canada. There are also three mini pop-up museums available for events, such as the Museum of Failure Innovation, Healthcare and Finance. If you can’t make it to Sweden, perhaps the Museum of Failure will come to you just as failure comes to us all.