The way I see it this is the largest threat against our society, wealth, economy - everything. Forget about China and Black Tuesday. Worry about Kakorrhaphiophobia among designers. Kakorrhaphiophobia among (want-to-be-)entrepreneurs (!). Kakorrhaphiophobia among CEOs. Kakorrhaphiophobia everywhere.
So what is this? It’s simply morbid fear of failure. Quite simply also the greatest danger today. We are so afraid of making aesthically "wrong" designs (=failure), so we just stick with what everyone else is doing. We are so afraid of changing our life and starting up as entrepreneurs that we never end up doing it right, just because we are afraid of failure.
But frankly - what is there to lose? Your reputation? Your friends? I don’t think so, if you try to think about it, some of the most significant people in history failed big time before making it to the history books. Van Gogh cut off his ear.. Hitler attacked the Soviet Union and lost everything (you can say a lot of bad things about him, but he was definitely not afraid of failure).. Starck did some crazy things that designers saw as just "wrong" from an aesthic point of view and now he is one of the worlds most famous designers.. George Bush (Jr.) entered Iraq to find weapons of mass destruction but there was none.. I could go on, but I’ll let your imagination do that 
Please provide me with the context I’m missing:
WHY ARE PEOPLE SO AFRAID OF FAILURE?
4 comments so far
well..
Hitler suffered from illusions of grandeur. And the worst thing he would imagine was failure. Why do you think he killed him self. He could’t live with the thought of failure.
So guess he’s a pretty bad example !
I don’t think he’s that bad an example, as I wrote you can blame him for a lot of things, also a lot of psychological terms. But if he was afraid of failure he would never have attacked the Soviet Union, UK or any other supreme power. This guy had balls and I do not think that him being afraid of failure is the reason why he killed himself. That’s rather got something to do with his personal views on the world at large, he could never imagine being tortured. And oh don’t tell me he didn’t experience failure before he got to power. The fact that he experienced failure is probably the main reason he strived for power.
hmm, maybe ill try answering the one about fear and failure.
I think that on all levels of society, for people, companies, schools and designers as well, fear is present. Innovation takes guts, drive and the self-confidence to accept that you might fail and you will not please everyone and you might even be disliked. Its so much easier to tread on familiar grounds, copy, follow and critique, so much more confortable.
Illusions of grandeur are equally dangerous because you tend to get very high but then sink very low. If you are able to accept failure as being part of life and a way to learn there is hope for the new, the unexpected and innovation.
A friend of mine wrote this too me just yesterday:
Failure is always the best way to learn
Tracing your steps as you go
Have no fear, your wounds will heal
- Kings of Convenience (Failure)
Tom Peter’s [http://www.tompeters.com/]assertion that one should embrace failure is an interesting one. In his book Re-imagine!” the concept is discussed in depth. The argument goes something like “reward dramatic failures, and punish mediocre successes”…Sounds interesting to me but around where I work sadly, nothing could be further from the truth. Theoretically if you are trying new stuff and failing spectacularly at least you are ahead in the sense that you have a better idea of what doesn’t work AND a better idea of what might work and can then move forward. If the ideas are exciting in the first place that’s a good place to be…
Mediocrity reigns however, and I think that may be the crux of the problem. You are right - people are afraid of failure - for all kinds of reasons. They want to please the boss, keep the job, maintain the lifestyle, keep the peace etc…
Risk is a risky business
Us westerners seem to have a lot to lose. Maybe that’s why the rise of China and India is so scary to many. Those guys don’t have much to lose at all…lucky for them hey 
Hey, Kings of Convenience are cool … nice one!