How Angus Kidman failed

For an award-winning editor, failure is pretty high up Angus Kidman’s vocabulary.

But as he, and a ton of other industry heavyweights have told Travel Weekly in the recent weeks, failure is a key part of success.

The last industry professional we heard from was the ‘First Lady of cruising’ Sarina Bratton, who told us that confidence is key – especially when making mistakes in pursuit of success.

And mistakes are something this Finder.com.au Editor-in-Chief can relate to.

“One of the mantras that’s often heard around the Finder offices where I now work is ‘You haven’t made enough mistakes,'” Kidman told TW.

“The only way to test if something is going to work is to try it.

“It might be a spectacular success; it might be a pants-soiling failure. But when that happens, you just have to wipe up the mess. You’re unlikely to make the same mistake again.”

If this is already inspiring you, check out the oodles of other speakers set to speak at our Travel DAZE conference in under a month.

Kidman has edited for a ton of publications, and has been writing for over 20 years. But that doesn’t mean it was smooth sailing the whole way.

“One of the more spectacular failures of my life was when I let a colleague publish an opinion piece slamming James Packer.

“The problem was that he was the major shareholder in our employer. In the wake of that, half a dozen people left the company, myself included,” Kidman said.

“That actually launched me into a successful freelance career which I’d probably have been too gutless to consider otherwise.

“But it also reinforced that it always makes sense to check something one more time before you run with it,” he continued.

Travel DAZE is returning to the iconic Belvoir Street Theatre on Monday, 25 September 2017. Grab last minute tix here and email hannah@travelweekly.com.au for a cheeky discount on tickets!

And if you need a letter for your boss on why you should attend/get free tickets/a day off, we’ve got you covered here too.

For all the extra info (and some funny failure memes) head here.

Thanks to our sponsors, you guys are guns! Watch this space to learn more about failure.

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Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au

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