Embrace Failure, Gain Success

The Key to Unlocking Success

Failure isn’t just disappointing; it’s crushing. The sleepless nights, the self-doubt, the frustration of the effort you put in, only to come up short in the end. It feels like a punch to the gut, a weight you can’t shake. However, what if failure wasn’t the end of your story? What if it was just the beginning of something greater? Surprisingly, if you don’t give up and you learn from your failure, something much greater will come from your failure:

• Failure has been the catalyst for growth. Throughout history, if you examine the lives of successful people, you will find failure was ever-present in their lives.
• Embracing failure as a learning experience can lead to significant growth and success. Learning from mistakes is essential for transforming failures into valuable lessons.
• Failure is always required behind big success, so one should embrace it and even seek it out.

The most successful people in history didn’t just stumble into greatness—they failed their way there. Instead of giving up, they used those failures as stepping stones. Here are a few examples with instantly recognizable names:

• Thomas Edison – 10,000 Failures Before Success:
  Edison, the guy who gave us the light bulb, once said, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” He faced countless setbacks and plenty of doubters, but he kept going. That persistence led to inventions that changed the world. Failure has been the catalyst for growth. Throughout history, if you examine the lives of successful people, you will find failure was ever-present in their lives.
• Michael Jordan – Cut from His High School Team:
  Yep, one of the greatest basketball players of all time didn’t even make his high school varsity team at first. Instead of letting that define him, he used it as fuel to work harder—and, well, we all know how that turned out. Embracing failure as a learning experience can lead to significant growth and success. Learning from mistakes is essential for transforming failures into valuable lessons.

See a pattern here? Failure isn’t the end—it’s just part of the journey.

Failure only holds you back if you don’t learn from it. Every mistake, misstep, and setback has a lesson hidden inside—it’s just a matter of paying attention and using it to grow. You’ve probably heard the famous quote often credited to Albert Einstein: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” And honestly, he had a point.
If you keep tackling the same challenges the same way and hoping for a different outcome, you’re just setting yourself up for failure. But when you take a step back, figure out what went wrong, and tweak your approach, that’s when real progress is made. Learning from failure isn’t just important—it’s the key to getting better and eventually succeeding.

One of my favourite books is Go for No by Richard Fenton and Andrea Waltz. Fenton and Andrea Waltz argue that we shouldn’t avoid failure as a painful and unpleasant experience; rather, we should actually seek it out. Why? Because every “no” brings you one step closer to a “yes.” The book follows a short, engaging story about a struggling salesman named Eric who wakes up in an alternate reality where he meets a wildly successful version of himself. This version of Eric explains how he achieved success—not by avoiding rejection, but by embracing it. He learns that instead of setting “yes” goals (like closing a certain number of deals), he should set “no” goals (like getting a certain number of rejections). The more “no” responses he collects, the more opportunities he creates. The core message? Failure isn’t the opposite of success—it’s a part of the journey.

Failure feels awful, but it’s not the end—it’s actually the key to success. The most successful people, from Thomas Edison to Michael Jordan, failed a lot before they made it big because they learned, adapted, and kept going. Instead of fearing failure, embrace it, because every setback is just a stepping stone to something greater.