"Failures are like skinned knees, painful but superficial"
About this Quote
Perot’s line has the brisk, can-do snap of a businessman selling resilience the way he once sold systems: as something practical, manageable, and repeatable. “Skinned knees” yanks failure out of the boardroom and drops it onto a sidewalk, where everyone’s been humbled by gravity. It’s an image that refuses drama. You don’t need a therapist or a manifesto; you need a Band-Aid and the willingness to stand back up.
The intent is partly motivational, partly managerial. Perot is reframing failure as a cost of motion, not a verdict on competence. A skinned knee is evidence you were running, climbing, playing - doing the risky thing that makes progress possible. That subtext matters in business culture, where “failure” can sound existential: investors flee, reputations harden, careers stall. Perot counters that with a bodily metaphor that implies quick healing and minimal long-term damage.
There’s also a subtle act of power here. Calling failure “superficial” is a way of controlling the narrative, shrinking the wound so you can keep the machine moving. It’s comfort with an edge: if the pain is only surface-level, lingering too long starts to look like indulgence. In the late-20th-century American optimism Perot both embodied and monetized, grit is a civic virtue, and vulnerability is tolerated only if it resolves into action. The charm of the line is its clarity; the risk is its blind spot for failures that don’t heal cleanly.
The intent is partly motivational, partly managerial. Perot is reframing failure as a cost of motion, not a verdict on competence. A skinned knee is evidence you were running, climbing, playing - doing the risky thing that makes progress possible. That subtext matters in business culture, where “failure” can sound existential: investors flee, reputations harden, careers stall. Perot counters that with a bodily metaphor that implies quick healing and minimal long-term damage.
There’s also a subtle act of power here. Calling failure “superficial” is a way of controlling the narrative, shrinking the wound so you can keep the machine moving. It’s comfort with an edge: if the pain is only surface-level, lingering too long starts to look like indulgence. In the late-20th-century American optimism Perot both embodied and monetized, grit is a civic virtue, and vulnerability is tolerated only if it resolves into action. The charm of the line is its clarity; the risk is its blind spot for failures that don’t heal cleanly.
Quote Details
| Topic | Failure |
|---|
More Quotes by Ross
Add to List
