1. Failure is necessary. Sure, and so are five-day blizzards, Brussels sprout casseroles, and inboxes chock-full of spam. But failure, in fact, does occupy a central dynamic in business. Lacking a willingness to fail, many innovations may have merely been erased on the chalkboard of the abstract. "I think the whole concept of success and failure needs to be re-thought," says Richard Farson, author of "Whoever Makes The Most Mistakes Wins." "We're such a success-oriented culture, but I think what we need is more failure. Improvements only happen when you try things differently."

2. Failure reinforces the need for risk. This is akin to climbing back on the horse just after Mr. Ed flipped you like an old poker chip. Granted, it requires a gut check, but failing in any sort of business capacity can, in fact, jog your memory that risk is everywhere — and needs to be. "Business needs risk taking to foster innovation and creativity," Farson says. "And risk always involves a degree of failure."

3. Success can breed complacency. This is another tough nut. We all strive to come out on top, but it's important to remember that winning frequently results from a goodly sniff of luck. Moreover, mistakes prompt examination, whereas success can lead to a don't-fix-what-ain't-broke holding pattern. "When you have success, often there's an element of the stars being lined up with you," says Al Vicere, executive education professor of strategic leadership at Penn State University. "But having something go wrong is really an opportunity to look at processes and execution. What did you miss?"

4. Failure means you're not alone. It's natural to feel as adrift and isolated as an off-target field-goal kicker when things go sour. But within the frustration of failure is a reminder — that scores of wildly successful businesses and businesspeople have also experienced failure that often was catastrophic but also was essential to finding success. And, as Vicere notes, that's company with which you can go to school: "It's important to study how others failed. That can help you build patterns that can prove exceedingly useful."

5. Failure doesn't necessarily mean something went wrong. Yet another understandable reaction to failure is immediately assuming that something misfired. That's always a possibility. But bear in mind that failure can also derive from strength — perhaps an overly aggressive marketing or ad campaign, or simply a product or idea that's ahead of its time. That, in turn, can lead to analytic thinking to retool, not necessarily repair. "It's also a question of how you look at the failure," Farson says. "Often, it reflects a strength rather than any sort of weakness."

6. Failure can emphasize process, not merely people. Another functional pitfall of business is too much emphasis on the people involved, no matter if it's handing out due credit for success or searching for a scapegoat when something fizzles. Of course, people inevitably have a hand in how a business operates, but that overlooks the importance of how things actually function. And, through the self-examination that failure can prompt, people and processes can be brought into an equitable balance of importance. "Failure can help you move past finger-pointing and trying to lay blame," Vicere says. "It can lead to breaking down and examining a process, not simply an issue of personal failure."

7. Failure broadens your thinking. Consider the last time something really clicked. You wanted to repeat that process and the resulting feeling. Doing the same thing until it stops working can be a winning formula, but not one that necessarily touches on global issues of import, such as your overall operational plan, goals and philosophy. Here, failure steps in to fill the void. When something goes wrong, not only do you consider the various means of fixing that particular problem, you notch up your thinking to identify those broader elements that may have led to the snafu and others like it. And, down the line, that can mean solutions and adjustments before any further problems even crop up. "Thinking about what went wrong really pulls you up to a more strategic view," says Vicere. "It really forces you to think globally."