Museum opens in Sweden to exhibit failed inventions

CAIRO-24 June 2016: The first Museum of Failure opened in Helsingborg, Sweden, on June 7 aiming to provide an insight to the innovative process that provided the bases for modern products.

Dr. Samuel West, museum curter, believes that if we do not acknowledge, we will not be able to learn from our mistakes and create better innovations. He added that no one celebrates failure because even at a young age, society shuns failure. Failure occurs when products are hyped and they do not meet expectations.

The museum exhibits more than70 products some of which provided the gateway for the iPhone, the Internet, Hoverboards and Google Glasses. According to the museum’s site, “The majority of all innovation projects fail and the museum showcases these failures to provide visitors a fascinating learning experience.”

Dr. West developed the idea after visiting the Museum of Broken Relationships in Zagreb, Croatia. He was stunned at the fact that such museum exists. He thinks if people see those big companies fail and enhance their failures into innovations, people will be more accepting of failure.

He hopes people will learn from failure rather than just completely ignoring it and moving on to something new.

“Almost 80 to 90 percent of the innovations actually fail,” Dr. West added. All companies are aware that there is a chance that their new products could fail once introduced to the market. However, most companies tend to hide their failures and show the consumers the end product.