Excusing your offenses and failures by presenting them as something that, while clearly not good, is still within the bounds of what happens to reasonable, respectable, high-status people. If you pull this off successfully, people will be much more forgiving, and the punishments and reputational consequences far milder -- and you can be much bolder in your endeavors, knowing that you have this safety exit if you're unlucky.

By the way, my thoughts on this matter were at one point stimulated by this shrewd quote by Lord Keynes:

A 'sound' banker, alas! is not one who foresees danger and avoids it, but one who, when he is ruined, is ruined in a conventional and orthodox way along with his fellows, so that no one can really blame him.