September 5, 1973

Right To Fail Is Vital Heritage

"We are taking part in one of the biggest quiz shows in history," says Ted Berndt, dynamic president of the advertising and sales promotion agency bearing his name.

"Everybody in the United States is a contestant.  The prize is a free competitive economy.

"The objective is to hang onto your individual freedoms.

"We could justifiably call it 'Face The Truth Or Pay The Consequences' or 'You Bet Your Life'."

"It's different from any other quiz show in the world in one respect - either everybody wins or everybody loses.

Get Ted started and he will talk as long as you will listen on his favorite subject how to play the Great American Quiz Game to win.

We talk a lot about American freedoms, liberty, free economy and many other glittering generalities which have great impact on our lives but which few people understand.

We are a freedom loving people (supposedly) who are prepared to fight to the death for the right of free speech, the right of a free press, the right of free assembly, the right of a free economy.

It is Ted Berndt's contention that too many of us today ignore - or brush aside as antiquated - one important right, without which all the others cannot exist.

That right, he says, is THE RIGHT TO FAIL.

"This is something known and valued by every ball player, actor, salesman, lawyer, businessman.  Why?  Because these people know that in their fields, as in all areas of endeavor in life, you cannot hope to succeed unless you accept the possibility of failure.  The two go hand in hand."

There are some among us, he points out, who would protect every human being from the cradle to the grave and make the government one huge insurance agency to furnish security from sickness, job layoffs, mental worry, accident, human error, lack of thrift, and old age.

"The only premium they ask is most of your income and all of your individual freedoms," Berndt declares with a thump on the table.

"We are forgetting that we have to prize highly the right to fail.  For, if we so fear it that we eliminate it, we must accept the inevitable consequences and blot out forever any chances to success - to become human robots doomed to the same salaries, the same homes, the same cars, the same amusements, and perhaps the same thoughts.

"Who would kill incentive, ambition, desire to get ahead?  The answer is simple - anyone whose distaste for failure is so great that he will not gamble anymore with life because the jackpot of success isn't big enough.

A great, new theory of taxation has grown up among us, he says.  It can be termed "Let each pay according to his ability and get according to his need."

"Let's be honest and call it what it really is," he demands.  "It's a crackpot scheme to penalize a business if it conducts its efforts with success and makes money and provides jobs.  It's a hair-brained plan to punish individuals who have the guts to educate themselves or make personal sacrifices, or work harder than their neighbors.  It's a conspiracy to eventually make it impossible for a youngster to grow up to be anything his dreams will show him and his abilities allow him to be.

"These folks who would prevent failure say in effect that if there is a man anywhere who may,  through circumstances or his own laziness, he unable to take care of himself, then it is the legal duty of the man who has worked harder, planned better, invested more wisely to carry this other man's burden for him.  And they want to see that by law he is required to do so.

"Do we really believe that we have as much right to a Cadillac, to a $50,000 home, to a month's vacation in Florida as the man who has lived longer, worked harder, been born smarter and, let's face it, sometimes been luckier than we have?"

Two great fallacies exist in this concept that the right to fail should be eliminated, even if it were desirable.

First of all, it is not possible.  No man-made program can ever he devised for protection against all the natural risks of human endeavor or the hazards of life.  This kind of Protection is God's prerogative, not ours," says Berndt.

Second, it is an assumption that we in this country are not heedful of the welfare of our fellow man.  Nothing is further from the truth.  It is a moral obligation whose voluntary acceptance is made evident in the millions of dollars annually that Americans pour into United Fund, Red Cross, March of Dimes, Heart Fund, Cancer and other health and service agencies.

"We are people whose entire heritage was founded on the freedom to plan, to invent, to bargain.  to construct - to compete freely for farm land, for jobs, for business, for ideas on the basis that rewards justly belonged to the successful alone and that those who failed gained the most out of their experience and always had the chance to try again.

"If we forget that when we vote, or when we talk, or when we listen to the self-styled champions of the common man, or when we are assailed by any program to protect us by eliminating our right to fail - we are putting a slip knot around our own necks," Berndt concludes.

Original Version:

October 25, 1972

Need To Guard Right To Fail

"We are taking part in one of the biggest quiz shows in history," says Ted Berndt, dynamic president of the advertising and sales promotion agency bearing his name.

"Everybody in the United States is a contestant.  The prize is a free competitive economy.

"The objective is to hang onto your individual freedoms.

"You could justifiably call it 'Face The Truth or Pay The Consequences' or 'You Bet Your Life'."

Get Ted started and he will talk as long as you will listen on his favorite subject - how to play the Great American Quiz Game to win.  He held the intense interest of me and a half hundred other Rotarians for an hour recently as he hammered home the true meaning of what we call "private enterprise."

We talk a lot about American freedoms, liberty, free economy and many other glittering generalities which have great impact on our lives but which few people understand.

We are a freedom loving people (supposedly), who is prepared to fight to the death for the right of free speech, the right of a free press, the right of free assembly, the right of a free economy.

It is Ted Berndt's contention that too many of us today ignore - or brush aside as antiquated - one important right, without which all the others cannot exist.

That right, he says, is - THE RIGHT TO FAIL.

"This is something known and valued by every ball player, actor, salesman, lawyer, businessman.  Why?  Because these people know that in their fields, as in all areas of endeavor in life, you cannot hope to succeed unless you accept the possibility of failure.  The two go hand in hand."

There are some among us, he points out, who would protect every human being from the cradle to the grave and make the government one huge insurance agency to furnish security from sickness, job layoffs, mental worry, accident, human error, lack of thrift, and old age.

"The only premium they ask is most of your income and all of your individual freedoms," Berndt declares.

"We are forgetting that we have to prize highly the right to fail.  For, if we so fear it that we eliminate it, we must accept the inevitable consequences and blot out forever any chances of success - to become human robots doomed to the same salaries, the same homes, the same cars, the same amusements, and perhaps the same thoughts.

Who would kill incentive, ambition, desire, to get ahead?  The answer is simple - anyone whose distaste for failure is so great that he will not gamble anymore with life because the jackpot of success isn't big enough.

A great, new theory of taxation has grown up among us, he says.  It can be termed "Let each pay according to his ability and get according to his need."

"Let's be honest and call it what it really is," he demands.  "It's a crackpot scheme to penalize a business if it conducts its efforts with success and makes money and provides jobs.  It's a hair-brained plan to punish individuals who have the guts to educate themselves or make personal sacrifices, or work harder than their neighbors.  It's a conspiracy to eventually make it impossible for a youngster to grow up to be anything his dreams will show him and his abilities allow him to be.

"These folks who would prevent failure say in effect that if there is a man anywhere who may, through circumstances or his own laziness, be unable to take care of himself, then it is the legal duty of the man who has worked harder, planned better, invested more wisely to carry this other man's burden for him.  And they want to see that by law he is required to do so.

"Do we really believe that we have as much right to a Cadillac, to a $50,000 home, to a month's vacation in Florida as the man who has lived longer, worked harder, been born smarter and, let's face it, sometimes been luckier than we have?"

Two great fallacies exist in this concept that the right to fail should be eliminated, even if it were desirable.

First of all, it is not possible.  No manmade program can ever be devised for protection against all the natural rides of human endeavor or the hazards of life.  "This kind of protection is God's prerogative, not ours," says Berndt.

Second, it is an assumption that we in this country are not heedful of the welfare of our fellow man.  Nothing is further from the truth.  It is a moral obligation whose voluntary acceptance is made evident in the millions of dollars annually that Americans pour into United Fund, Red Cross, March of Dimes, Heart Fund, Cancer and other health and service agencies.

"We are people whose entire heritage was founded on the freedom to plan, to invent, to bargain, to construct - to compete freely for farm land, for jobs, for business, for ideas on the basis that rewards justly belonged to the successful alone and that those who failed gained the most out of their experience and always had the chance to try again.

"If we forget that when we vote, or when we talk, or when we listen to the self-styled champions of the common man, or when we are assailed by any program to protect us by limiting our right to fail - we are putting a slip knot around our own necks," Berndt concludes.

I have quoted Ted Berndt at some length today because his statements are provocative and mostly true, in my opinion.  I dissent from his views insofar as they relate to a free reign for big, semi-monopolistic business and labor.

A free economy which permits failure also has to provide a reasonable opportunity to succeed.  It is nearly impossible for an individual to start his own business and produce goods that compete with those of a multi-billion-dollar corporation.  An individual often cannot work for wages without taking orders from a union boss.

But this is wandering into another column.

Berndt's thesis is essentially correct.  Whatever the odds today, we should jealously guard our right to try.

Author: Lindsey Williams