Learning From Failure

Learning From Failure

A person stands on a ladder trimming a green hedge decorated with pink flowers, while a large pair of scissors is visible in the foreground.
These cultural lies make normal struggle feel like failure. A habit of experimentation makes it feel like progress.
A pencil tip touching paper with scattered graphite, with a row of brain MRI scans shown below.
6mins
There’s bad failure — the kind we ignore or hide — and good failure, which becomes data for future progress. Three experts discuss how to tell the difference.
Unlikely Collaborators
Three men in business attire and jackets stand before a collage background, featuring downward-trending graph lines on green paper, each displaying a CEO superpower as they navigate challenging markets.
From Charles Schwab to Jensen Huang, great leaders never attribute their success to flawless planning — they point instead to what went wrong.
A silhouette of a running person is surrounded by three curved arrows forming a circle, each in blue, green, and purple, on a patterned background.
Members
Best-selling author Gretchen Rubin emphasizes that achieving lasting change requires not only commitment but also an understanding of habit formation, encouraging us to take initial steps toward a healthier future.
A minimalist illustration of five overlapping, angled gray slabs against a pale blue background, creating strong diagonal lines and shadows.
Members
This class, featuring insights from Michael Strahan and Ginni Rometty, emphasizes learning from failure, building resilience through relationships, and fostering a growth mindset, ultimately equipping participants with strategies to thrive amidst uncertainty and embrace personal and professional growth.
A failure of a paper airplane constructed from crumpled paper.
“It is natural to want to avoid failure. But when we avoid failure, we also avoid discovery and accomplishment."
Illustration of a tennis court diagram featuring a bright yellow tennis ball, symbolizing success amidst several gray tennis balls, representing the journey through failure.
Tennis pro Mardy Fish and Spanx founder Sara Blakely both turned failure into their greatest asset.
A book spread showing a painting of a person, eyes filled with curiosity, looking outside on the left and four brain scan images on the right, overlaid on an orange background.
Research suggests curiosity triggers parts of the brain associated with anticipation, making answers more rewarding once discovered.
A close-up illustration of a Play-Doh container with the words "Kutol" and "Wall" on it, symbolizing its lasting success. The background features text fragments and abstract patterns.
Like ultra-hardy plants that thrive in harsh conditions, businesses that see crises as opportunities are likely to win in the long run.
Abstract collage featuring a human face, binary code, circuit patterns, stones, and wood texture shapes against a blue and black background, capturing the essence of innovation and the wisdom of hindsight.
AI researcher and author Ken Stanley wonders how our rear-view perspective on success fits into a serendipitous mode of innovation.
A collage image featuring a side profile of a person, abstract patterns, financial data, a cloudy sky, a person resting, another with head in hands—capturing the essence of freedom from hindsight bias—and a sunset over the ocean.
Josh Kaufman — best-selling author of entrepreneurial classic "The Personal MBA" — explores an essential truth about all decision-making.
Black and white sketch of a bald man with a long beard, wearing a suit and bow tie, looking to his left.
Adams was infamously scooped when Neptune was discovered in 1846. His failure wasn't the end, but a prelude to a world-changing discovery.
A realistic painting of a brown donkey with a bridle, standing on a light-colored ground, viewed from the side.
Over-reliance on experts with quick fixes has taken us too far from reality — it’s time to dispel the fairy tales.
A split image with a close-up of a blue eye on the left, and a classical painting of a woman resting her head on her arm on a sofa on the right.
Bob Dylan gave us the paradoxical gem "there's no success like failure, and failure's no success at all." He had a point.
A window that says fail better on a yellow background.
7mins
There are three kinds of failure. Only one can help you have a better shot of succeeding in the future. A Harvard business professor explains.
bennu
The surface of asteroid Bennu is more like a plastic ball pit than the Moon.
The story of John Couch Adams, “the man who failed to discover Neptune,” and his cosmic redemption. Perhaps its human nature to want to only think positive thoughts about our […]