Is making mistakes a necessity for success?

I think that there is a confusion here: making mistakes is not a necessity for success. Making mistakes is necessary for learning, but not for success. Any lottery winner can confirm that.<p>It is all down to this philosophy that says that success comes from hard work and recovering from failure, and that if you try hard enough you eventually reach your goals. But you also need sheer luck.<p>And please, don't translate luck as "being at the right place at the right time" because that amounts to trying hard enough, but is not. You can be at the right place at the right time because of... sheer luck.

I don't think you have to MAKE mistakes to succeed, but you have to be willing to RISK making mistakes to succeed. Anyone who isn't willing to make some mistakes probably never left the proverbial 'cube farm' in the first place, since that in and of itself is a potential mistake. After all if you fail in that you are probably going to end up in a great deal of financial trouble, assuming you never got VC funding.