While children are often eager to admire public figures and want to be like them, adults also have role models who indirectly help them push beyond their limits. Often, depending on our age, different people inspire us: while teenagers admire Big Flo & Oli, Mbappé, or Eric Antoine, adults are more impressed by the achievements of people who have marked history, such as Rosa Park, Gandhi, or Thomas Pesquet. Yet all these symbols of success faced difficulties before reaching the recognition we know them for. Could failure be a key to success? That is what we will explore in this article.

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Our role models: ultimately humans who go through difficulties

The demigod Hercules: his feats after his punishment

In films, series, books, and mythological tales, inspiring heroes are not only inspiring because they succeed in everything they undertake, but because they never give up and keep going despite the many obstacles placed before them. Take the example of Hercules, this demigod known for his strength who, because he killed the envoys of the king of Orchomenus, was sentenced to carry out 12 particularly difficult tasks: kill the Nemean lion whose skin was impenetrable, bring back the Erymanthian boar alive, tame Minos’s bull, etc.

With the figure of Hercules, we are shown an imperfect hero through his status as a demigod, but also through his outbursts of violence. Constant exemplary behavior in order to succeed is therefore not an essential element.

Pastry chef Cédric Grolet: his failures in competitions

Facing difficulties is not unique to fictional characters. Many public figures have also succeeded after experiencing one or more failures. Did you know that Cédric Grolet, the famous pastry chef of the five-star Parisian hotel Le Meurice, failed a competition? While he is best known for his trompe-l'oeil pastries, his reputation for creating high-quality desserts, and his strong social media influence, he nevertheless failed in a chocolate sculpture competition organized by the Salon du Chocolat.

Although he had conscientiously prepared for two years to master the technique perfectly, on the big day it was a disaster: while sliding his blowtorch, he burned part of the curtain! Too stressed to continue, he could not finish his piece. Persevering, Cédric Grolet still wanted to try the same competition again, but it was another failure because when moving his chocolate piece, it broke. Following these unfortunate experiences, he chose to focus on his career and joined the prestigious restaurant Le Meurice.

Athletes: their defeats before victories

Let’s move from the world of indulgence to that of sport. Many top athletes have faced difficulties. Lionel Messi, the footballer with 7 Ballon d’Or awards, had to make extra efforts because of his small build, which could have held him back at the start of his career. Rafael Nadal also suffered failures before being presented today as the winner of 21 Grand Slams. It may be less known, but during a competition in Tarbes for under-14 players, the Majorcan tennis player was defeated by Frenchman Richard Gasquet. This defeat was a wake-up call for him, allowing him to change his technique so as never to lose to Gasquet again.

GAFA CEOs: the lesser-known difficulties

In the professional sphere, failures are also common. Still following the thread of famous figures, we looked at GAFA leaders. Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO, did not have an easy path: abandoned by his adoptive mother, who would have liked to see him complete higher education, fired from the company he had founded, and struck by cancer, this entrepreneur had to find the strength to move forward no matter what.

Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder, also experienced bitter failures. Have you heard of the “Fire Phone,” a smartphone meant to compete with Apple and Samsung? Probably not!

In the United States, being bold at work is encouraged. In fact, in Silicon Valley, entrepreneurs are encouraged to test new ideas, revise their projects if needed, and above all fail fast, as Tim Brown, founder of the IDEO agency, said: “Fail early, to succeed faster”!

Through these examples, we see that behind every success lies a path full of obstacles! The question is not so much whether failure leads to success, because as you have understood, the answer is “potentially.” We should instead ask how failure (or failures) lead(s) to success. That is why we will study the stages an individual may go through when experiencing failure.

Success VS failure

Failure and success are both based on a goal we set for ourselves, or a wish, a desire. It is because we do not obtain what we are trying to do/have that we speak of failure. Conversely, it is because we obtain what we desired that we speak of success.

Success: the result of work

Success is materialized by something new that appears as a sign of recognition for the person concerned: an award, a new position, attention, an encounter, etc. We often hear successful people say they worked tremendously hard to reach a convincing result. Remember the famous phrase “All my efforts have finally paid off,” which shows that work and success are two components that go together. To achieve this, defining a goal is crucial, because it gives you direction and can be broken down into sub-steps, thus guiding you on the path to success.

Work: the consequence of failure?

If success is the fruit of work, we are entitled to ask whether all work leads to success. Not necessarily! Imagine preparing to get your driver’s license, but failing to yield to the right on exam day—this fault, considered disqualifying, will make you retake the test a second time. It is not so much the amount of work done that matters, but the right habits acquired and the ability to focus in the present moment that become factors for passing your license. You may have trained a lot to succeed, but because you picked up bad habits during accompanied driving with your brother and were more anxious than usual that day, you did not have the reflex to react appropriately when a car came from the right.

More than simple preparation, it is excellent preparation that leads to favorable results. As a consequence of this failure—here, failing the driving test—you might decide to rework certain points such as your reflexes and stress management. Saying that work is the consequence of failure would therefore be reductive, because it can also happen before failure. On the other hand, we can affirm that improving one’s work methods is often the consequence of failure.

The Virtues of Failure

Learning

Failing means learning! It seems obvious, you might say, but what we want to highlight is that by failing, you obtain valuable information to improve yourself. Failing once does not mean the same problem will never happen again. Nothing says you won’t encounter variations or nuances of your failures, or even exactly the same ones. In fact, as long as you have not assimilated the reasons for your failure(s), the error may repeat itself. It is only when the factors of failure are truly understood that you can draw conclusions and make sure you no longer face a past situation(s).

When we mentioned Cédric Grolet’s experience above, we explained that this pastry chef failed twice in the same competition. While the first mistake highlighted the importance of being organized on the big day, it was not enough, because he failed a second time, again due to a lack of organization; his sculpture broke before it even arrived in the truck meant to transport it to the competition venue. In the end, the pastry chef needed these two failures to realize, first, that planning organization on the big day was crucial. Second, to realize that what he truly loved was having his creations tasted by customers and not by judges.

Managing the unexpected

Failures can occur due to slips, careless mistakes, or unexpected events. You didn’t think you had to act in a certain way, that the correct answer was B, that someone would choose a given option, that your project would flop, … yet the fact remains that what you undertook did not work. As the name suggests, unexpected events are situations we did not foresee or anticipate. Since we do not expect them, we are generally surprised and often not well enough prepared to react in the best way. While they are difficult to predict, it is still possible to imagine the worst situations that might occur and thus think through plan Bs.

The advantage you have when you have already failed because of an unexpected event is that, because of the intense emotion felt, you will better memorize the unforeseeable situation, do research for plan Bs, and thus be more effective if you encounter it again. Compared with those who have not failed, you will be one step ahead. You are less likely to fail a second time, unlike those discovering it for the very first time.

Being human

Has it ever happened to you that you felt annoyed because you had the impression that someone never made mistakes? You then thought that by being too perfect, they might be hiding something. Making mistakes leads us to show ourselves as we truly are in order to avoid being crushed by them.

For some, it is an opportunity to get closer to new people. In a difficult situation, you might realize that people you already appreciate or barely knew have also experienced similar situations. These exchanges with them could: relieve you because you won’t feel alone, allow you to share good advice, and help you grow closer.

Think of your best friends: if they are there for you in good times, it is because they are also there in less pleasant times, which is why you identify them as “best friends.” They accept your humanity made up of strengths and weaknesses, and that is why you care about them.

Persevering

There is one virtue we have not yet mentioned, but which is so essential: perseverance, the resilience that develops following failure. When you start a new project (professional or personal), you will of course do preparation work to anticipate needs as best as possible and avoid mistakes; however, the probability of avoiding failure is not zero. If you rely on “Design Thinking,” a method consisting of building a multidisciplinary team with the aim of turning a problem into innovative solutions, you could at any time become stuck in your thinking because what you have done (or thought) does not fit reality.

This approach, most often structured in 5 steps (empathy, definition, ideation, prototyping, testing), is iterative since with it, it is possible to go back to previous phases. One of the objectives of “design thinking” is indeed to experiment with failure, and the final step proves it. Indeed, after prototyping a product or service, two outcomes are available to “design thinking” users: “Go, launch your project” or “No Go, rework it and persevere.”

*Photo taken by Brett Jordan

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Failure is not the only key to success because it is possible to succeed at an action without having missed the goal we had set ourselves. However, failure can be a path to success if we adopt a learning mindset, make good use of the lessons understood by improving our methods, accept our share of humanity, and remain persevering whatever happens.