How Can Failure Lead to Success?

Successful woman at the top of the mountain

A lot of people who have big dreams are afraid to actually go out and try to make their dreams come true. It’s no wonder that making big life changes can be scary. But the problem is that sometimes we can’t tell the difference between good risks and bad risks. And if we are too afraid to fail, how can failure ever lead to success?

If you want to change your life in a big way, you have to take a risk (or several risks even). Otherwise, you’ll always choose the safe road that you don’t quite like if you’re being totally honest. And that just makes no sense! You have one life, you should make the most out of it.

If you are in a situation where you feel like you just can’t win or you’ve just failed remarkably, keep reading. Failure can lead to success and you can turn even the direst situation around. What you mustn’t do, is lose your belief and stop trying. Incredible things can happen in a short time if you have the courage to get back up and try again.

We are taught that failure is bad

It’s important to realize, that one big reason why we are so afraid of failure is simply that we have been taught that way. Not because failure or making mistakes was somehow inherently bad.

Your parents probably didn’t praise you for making mistakes and they might even have punished you for making those stupid little mistakes that children do simply because they don’t know any better.

And when you went to school, you were constantly evaluated and analyzed and given grades. School doesn’t exactly send the message: “if you don’t know this yet, let’s go over it one more time” or “you failed this time, but you can try again”. Most students get the message “I didn’t do well on this, which means that I’m bad at this subject and that’s how it will be”. How sad!

What I want you to do, is to constantly remind yourself, that making mistakes is human. Failure is normal. If you never fail, it means that you’re not even trying. Which essentially means, that you can’t succeed either.

Try to embrace the little failures or goofs in your everyday life. This will teach you that mistakes and setbacks aren’t that dangerous or embarrassing, and you can get over them. When you make a mistake, you learn something. If anything, failure is a gift!

Failure teaches you what works

What failure does best, is teach you what works and what doesn’t. Of course, to learn, you have to be willing to analyze what you did wrong and what you should do differently next time. I know this might not be the first thing on your mind when you feel embarrassed or discouraged. It’s not fun to make mistakes.

But you have to keep in mind, that failure results from wrong actions, and by simply changing your actions, you will get different results. You might not yet know what exactly those right actions are (if it were that simple, we’d have no problem, right?), but by taking into account what went wrong and trying a few new things, you’re bound to get closer to your goal.

So, when you notice that things haven’t gone according to your plan, take a step back and ask yourself, what exactly went wrong. Do you lack certain skills? Did you just dive in without a proper plan? Did you spend too much time working on things that don’t matter that much? Was this maybe the wrong path to take altogether?

Be honest with yourself and try to figure out what exactly is the problem. Remember that you didn’t fail because you’re a bad or incapable person. You failed because the actions you chose didn’t lead to the desired outcome. You can try again, this time that much wiser.

Desk flat lay for hard work

Failure can be redirection

Sometimes you fail big time. Maybe you make a bad mistake at work and you get fired. Or you’ve spent years trying to build a career of your dreams only to find out that you’re simply not the right person for that profession. Maybe your business goes bankrupt. Or maybe you just feel like you haven’t achieved anything in your life.

Whatever your situation is, remember that it isn’t the end of the story. Failing at something doesn’t mean that you yourself are a failure. If something doesn’t work out, consider it redirection. Learn from the experience and either try again or move on to try something completely new. Sometimes life simply shows you that you’d be more successful somewhere else.

Possibly what you should do, is to try something completely new. Maybe a big change in your career would lead to amazing opportunities you couldn’t even imagine before. You never know, maybe one day you will return and give a second chance to what you first failed at and this time you might succeed.

If you really want to succeed, you have to fail sometimes

Some people have big goals, some people have small goals and some people don’t have any goals at all. If your goals are somewhat easy to achieve, you don’t have to prepare yourself to endure massive failures and times of agony. Even then, it is good to remember that sometimes things don’t go according to your plan. Which is of course when you change your plan and try again.

But if you are someone with big goals, possibly even scary big goals, you have to be willing to face obstacles and solve problems that you didn’t see coming. Some of those problems will be completely your own fault and it can be hard to accept. But you always have to keep your end goal in mind and remember that some bumps in the road are expected and very normal.

You might face situations where you don’t have any idea how to continue. Or you wonder whether you should just quit. Those are the moments that truly define who you are and what you are willing to do to reach your goal.

Whatever happens, always keep learning. Don’t just push your failures aside and forget about them. Analyze them and figure out what went wrong and what you should do differently.

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Just because it feels difficult, doesn't mean it can't be done

Famous examples of failures that lead to success

Sometimes we hear success stories where someone did something seemingly simple and became a success overnight. Possibly that has truly happened to some people, but usually, if you dig a little bit deeper, you’ll notice that successful people didn’t always have it easy and sometimes they had to face enormous obstacles.

Let’s take J.K. Rowling as an example. In the early 1990s, she was a divorced, unemployed single mother who could barely make ends meet. She suffered from depression and seeing no resolution in sight, considered herself a failure.

But then, she got the idea for Harry Potter and started writing. However, publishers didn’t believe in her book at first and she had to approach several of them before she finally got a deal. It took her years to overcome her failure, but as we all know, things worked out very well in the end.

What about Steve Jobs then? He founded Apple – but a decade later he was essentially fired from his own company! At that point Jobs for sure wasn’t thinking that being made to resign was anything else but a massive failure.

But, as we later got to see, the years away from Apple turned out to be meaningful. He founded NeXT (a computer workstation company) and funded Pixar in its early years. Now, NeXT was not a success, but it enabled Jobs to grow and move forward. One more decade later he was back at Apple, and as we all know, that’s when things really started happening. Once again failure lead to success. 

It’s hard to remember that one of the most prominent names in the tech world was once anything but a success. And it took him years to finally catch a break.

Yet that is exactly what you have to be willing to do if you yourself want to succeed in reaching your own goals. Of course, most goals are probably easier to achieve than starting a leading tech company, but that just means you have all the more reason to go for it and try your best.

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Do you feel like the fear of failure is holding you back? Or do you always embrace the chance to learn something new? Let me know in the comments! Also, remember to pin this post if you found it useful!

Next, read how you can upgrade your life by following a few easy steps

10 Comments

  1. Great blog topic! Failure can teach you a lot about who you are and what you believe. Stepping out on faith and taking risks can be challenging for most people. I’ve found having a great support network helps out, but sometimes you have to be your own cheerleader. Happy Blogging!

    1. Having the right people around you definitely helps! Although as you said, sometimes the only person who’s there for you is you. Thank you so much!

  2. I always take risks and failed many times in life in business but i learned a lot , grew and know i have a more clearer idea about what i want in life

    This is post is so inspiring and thoughtful

    Thank you

  3. I agree, failure isn’t something to be avoided since our failures can have so much to teach us. It’s a lesson I wish we all learned at a younger age. Great article. Providing famous examples was a nice touch. I do my best to turn my ‘pains into purpose’. To grow from my failures and help others going through similar situations.

    1. You’re so right! It’s so sad we are taught that there’s something wrong or bad about failure. It doesn’t even make any sense, since failure isn’t something you can avoid. Nor is it all that bad at the end of the day (usually at least). Thank you for your feedback, great to hear that you liked this article!

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