There has been a big push by the government over the past year to position Britain as “the world’s next Silicon Valley”, a hotbed for technological innovation where brilliant ideas are transformed into world-changing companies.

In principle, this is an exciting prospect for entrepreneurs. Who wouldn’t want a business environment that rewards risk and champions ingenuity? It is a more practical economic approach than it might seem, too. The tax burden is already the highest in memory and cutting spending on public services is not possible. Growth is really the only option left for driving the economy forward and Silicon Valley offers a neat model for doing just that.

The timing for a bold strategy is good. The transformational opportunities presented by generative artificial intelligence are taking businesses in directions that founders and chief executive could not have predicted even a year ago. There is a sense of renewal and a feeling of being at the start of something new and exciting — and incredibly daunting.

In that way, it feels a bit like when I started my first business during the dotcom boom. Back then, it felt like a new dawn, with high optimism around the possibilities afforded by the internet. Of course, a lot of it didn’t work, but we should never forget that a lot of it did. As we begin the AI era, it is vital that business leaders and politicians do not dwell on the past.

We cannot think in the short term. This is where the problems start. If the Silicon Valley vision is to become a reality, it requires far more than a political slogan accompanied by a few policy tweaks. It needs a true growth mentality, characterised by confidence, strategy and a willingness to take risks. Is the government the place to foster this mindset and infuse it throughout the economy? Perhaps not.

A fundamental part of any successful high-growth business ecosystem — Silicon Valley being the prime example — is an understanding that not all investments will pay off. Sometimes you try something bold and it doesn’t work out and that’s OK. Like anyone investing in shares, overall it’s the returns across the portfolio that matter more than any one stock. The critical thing is balance.

Yet our political system means that the government wants everything to work, all at once. Indeed, nowhere is there a bigger penalty for failure than in government, which is the worst possible culture from which to create an entrepreneurial environment. It is seen as a weakness to admit failure and U-turns are viewed as catastrophic. With that attitude, the returns are limited. It’s like putting all your savings in a current account.

The growth mindset is about agility, learning as you go and changing direction if needed. None of these are traits associated with running a country. The short-termism of government does not translate to entrepreneurs running high-growth companies, even more so with a general election on the horizon. Successful investors in private equity and venture capital make bets that might not pay out for ten years. The government is not even taking a ten-month view.

This attitude transfers into the economy and breeds uncertainty. For business leaders, there is always a paradox at play during periods of technological upheaval. If you’re too far in the future, you can lose the detail of today and are in danger of dropping the ball so much that you never make it to the future. Yet if you’re only ever in the present, you never really have a vision. Business leaders need to keep one eye on the north star and the other firmly on the road immediately ahead. This is where a clearly defined, long-term industrial strategy from government can genuinely help. It provides some certainty to support making big decisions for the future.

We are really good at certain things in this country, such as financial and professional services, creative industries, advanced manufacturing and, potentially, AI. Equally, there are some things we are not at all good at, yet there is an attempt to excel at everything instead of doubling down on fewer, bigger and bolder bets, accepting that some will fail badly but overall gaining the portfolio return.

The most successful investors have a thesis on the market, its long-term evolution, and back up these beliefs with capital. There is no sitting on the fence. As one high-profile venture capitalist once told me: we may not be right, but we are not confused.

Being bold enough to set a course and stick to it is essential to fostering a growth mindset. Do that and failure is always a risk. The alternative is spreading yourself too thinly across risk-averse projects and ultimately that leads to the biggest failure: not achieving any results — or any growth.

Caroline Plumb is a serial entrepreneur and is the chief executive of Gravita, a tax, accountancy and advisory firm