The second crucial element that makes Silicon Valley a center of innovation is education. They ve seeded the local economy with people driven by ideas and able to turn them into new products and services. Even more important than the education process is the cultural attitude that it is worth taking a risk for a good idea. In Silicon Valley, business failure is not a disgrace if it isn t intentional or due to hopeless ineptitude. Business failure can even heighten the respect you command, because you learn.
Failure can simply be a twist on the road to success.
If risks are to succeed, there has to be sufficient risk cap-ital. The venture capital industry illustrates the Silicon Valley way of thinking. Money chases ideas. Thanks to venture capi-tal, new Silicon Valley companies are born every day. The number of IPOs jumped 140 percent from 1998 to 1999, largely due to Internet companies.