Each year, we choose the 35 innovators under the age of 35 whose new technologies seem most gloriously creative and most likely to expand human life. (Here are the 2006 winners.) In editing this year's TR35--and rereading the profiles of last year's winners, whom we introduced in the October 2005 issue--I've noticed a few things about successful innovation.

(1) Successful innovators are famously untroubled by the prospect of failure. Bryan Cantrill, an engineer at Sun Microsystems who invented software that allows systems engineers to track bugs in real time (and whom we named one of 2005's TR35), says, "People who have innovated once, and who say they are not frightened that they won't be able to repeat their success, are probably lying. The challenge is not to be crippled by fear, but allow it to drive you forward." More profoundly, (2) many innovators appreciate failure. Yael Maguire, the chief technology officer of ThingMagic and another of last year's TR35, who has designed machines that read radio frequency identification chips, says, "If you're not working on technologies that are going to fail, you're not pushing the boundaries enough. Even if a technology failed ... you'll be able to put it in your back pocket and use it for some other purpose."