At risk of sounding cliché, what we’re calling the “new” economy is arguably composed of more risk-takers than in generations past. Facebook, Airbnb, and Google all share a common trait: They started with little bets that paid off big. More importantly, these companies made discoveries along the path to their success by taking risks that didn’t pay off. Does anyone recall Apple’s flip phone or Google Lively? Not likely, because these products weren’t around long enough to become colossal failures and tank these two stalwarts as a result. (For its part, Google Lively had a shelf life of only six months and cost the company relatively little to develop.)