The Museum of Failure: A New Swedish Museum Showcases Harley-Davidson Perfume, Colgate Beef Lasagne, Google Glass & Other Failed Products

Here, in Sil­i­con Val­ley, fail­ure isn’t always fail­ure. At least accord­ing to the local mythol­o­gy, it’s some­thing to be embraced, accept­ed, even cel­e­brat­ed. “Fail fast, fail often,” they say. And even­tu­al­ly you’ll learn enough to achieve real suc­cess.

On June 7th, the Muse­um of Fail­ure will open in Hels­ing­borg, Swe­den. There you’ll find the remains of failed inno­va­tion. Google Glass, the Sony Beta­max, the Apple New­ton, Noki­a’s N‑gage–they’re all there. Dit­to a bot­tle of Harley-David­son Per­fume, Coca-Cola BlāK (aka cof­fee-fla­vored coke), and a Col­gate Beef Lasagne TV Din­ner. And, don’t for­get the Trump monop­oly-style board game–part of a long line of failed Trump prod­ucts and busi­ness­es.

Above, cura­tor Samuel West high­lights items in the col­lec­tion. Bring­ing togeth­er over 60 failed prod­ucts and ser­vices from around the world, the col­lec­tion pro­vides “unique insight into the risky busi­ness of inno­va­tion.” You can get anoth­er glimpse of the new insti­tu­tion below. Fit­ting­ly, the muse­um is free.

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Relat­ed Con­tent:

The Long Game of Cre­ativ­i­ty: If You Haven’t Cre­at­ed a Mas­ter­piece at 30, You’re Not a Fail­ure

Oprah Winfrey’s Har­vard Com­mence­ment Speech: Fail­ure is Just Part of Mov­ing Through Life

Paulo Coel­ho on The Fear of Fail­ure

How to Start a Start-Up: A Free Course from Y Com­bi­na­tor Taught at Stan­ford

Seth Godin’s Start­up School: A Free Mini-Course for New Entre­pre­neurs


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Open Culture was founded by Dan Colman.