Learning from failure is a hallmark of the technology business. Nick Baker, a 37-year-old system architect at Microsoft, knows that well. A British transplant at the software giant’s Silicon Valley campus, he went from failed project to failed project in his career. He worked on such dogs as Apple Computer’s defunct video card business, 3DO’s failed game consoles, a chip startup that screwed up a deal with Nintendo, the never successful WebTV and Microsoft’s canceled Ultimate TV satellite TV recorder.

But Baker finally has a hot seller with the Xbox 360, Microsoft’s video game console launched worldwide last holiday season…

In an industry where you have to take a 4 billion dollar loss just to break into the market, the deadlines are tight, the stakes are big, and a mistake can cost you everything…