Orji Chigozie Henry“Failure is the opposite of success.” How many times have you heard this cliché, or believed it yourself? Too many of us think of failure as the enemy. But what if failure was actually a part of success?
Think about it. How many stories of success do you know that didn’t involve some sort of failure along the way? From businessmen to athletes, artists to scholars, you’ll likely find failure is something they all have in common.
“I’ve met thousands of leaders and performers over the years. The successful ones have something in common.” -Michael Simmons. Leadership experts, psychologists, and performance researchers all agree: If you want to improve your chances of success, you must become comfortable with failure. Learn how to fail better.
Why? Because those who learn to leverage failure learn a new set of skills that most successful people have mastered. They know that failure leads to success every time.
Why Failure Is Important To Success
1. Failure Creates Resilience
Have you ever noticed how failure forces you to feel uncomfortable? It pushes you to dig deep and find emotional strength you didn’t know you had.
Each time you fail and choose to get back up, you learn how to win despite the feeling of defeat. You build resilience. “The ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change.” That’s the definition of resilience.
Research shows that resilience can be learned by exposing yourself to enough small failures. So the more times you fail and bounce back, the more resilient you’ll become as you age.
Essentially, failure creates success armor. It allows you to face tougher setbacks without cracking. And those who are resilient will win despite the circumstances.
2. Failure Teaches You Valuable Lessons
Success can often create comfort zones. It allows you to get by using the same habits over and over. But failure forces you to slow down and study what went wrong. It demands you learn from your mistakes if you want to improve.
Many of life’s greatest lessons are learned through failure. Every time you fail and take something away from it, you’re one lesson closer to success. “Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.” – Albert Einstein
Failure leaves clues that teach you how to do better next time. As you learn more and more lessons from your mistakes, you become wiser with each decision you make.
Related: The Importance of Persistence
3. Failure Prompts Personal Growth
Whenever you fail, you are forced to become aware of your weaknesses. You discover the things you’re doing wrong and areas in which you need to improve. This opens the door for personal growth. You become more aware of your strengths and weaknesses.
One popular psychologist named Carol Dweck talks about the growth mindset. Basically, she says that if you begin to see failure as a way to grow, you’ll become more apt to learn new skills.
The more self-aware you become, the more you can hone your actions to what you’re good at. And when you focus on playing to your strengths, you’ll find success coming easier and easier.
4. Failure Forces You to Problem Solve
Life tends to go smoother when everything works out. But what happens when your plans fall apart? When you’re forced to deal with failure, you have to think outside the box to solve your problems. Not only that, but you learn to solve problems you may never have faced if you had continued on your path.
Psychologists have found that problem-solving skills improve most when we are under a certain amount of pressure. Failure is no different.
It forces you to grow your problem-solving skills each time you face a setback. And the more you problem solve, the better you become at it.
5. Failure Keeps You Humble
One of the biggest lessons failure teaches is that you’re not perfect. Nobody is. Not only that, but failure helps you realize it’s okay to ask for help. You learn to trust other people. You learn to lean on friends and mentors when you need a little support.
It’s no coincidence that some of the best leaders are the ones who have failed more than most. They understand that emotions play a critical role in other people’s ability to succeed.
When you keep yourself humble by accepting your failures, you’re able to better relate to and help others. And helping others lead to success.
6. Failure Allows You to Refine Your Goals
Have you ever failed at something and then questioned if it was really what you wanted? Failure has a funny way of clarifying what you want.
When you fail at something, it could very well be your subconscious telling you that it doesn’t line up with your values, your strengths, or your vision.
Many people discover what they want to do with their life after they fail at their first career. By failing at something, you automatically eliminate one more thing you don’t want to do.
When you fail, you allow yourself to become open to what you should be doing. And when you know what you should be doing, you’ll find success in that area.
Related: 12 Reasons Why Determination Is Important for Success
7. Failure Instills Discipline
If you’ve ever had something come easily to you, you know that it doesn’t require much discipline to be successful. But what happens when you fail? What happens when you have to start over? When you’ve lost everything you’ve worked for?
It forces you to become disciplined. You have to learn to keep going when you don’t see immediate results. Failure teaches you how to be consistent. “Your discipline will become stronger than your feelings.” – Tony Robbins
It also teaches you to trust the process. You learn that nothing good comes overnight, and you have to accept that if you want to succeed.
8. Failure Eliminates the Fear of Trying
Let’s say you fail at something. You learn from your mistakes and try again. But what happens if you fail again? You may be less afraid the second time, but what if you fail a third time? The more you fail, the less scared you’ll become with failure.
Research has shown that fear of failure is one of the top reasons people don’t reach their full potential. By failing you realize it’s not the end of the world. You learn you can recover from failure.
So go ahead and fail as much as you want. The more you fail, the braver you’ll become. And when you are no longer controlled by the fear of trying something, you open yourself up to greatness.
9. Failure Strengthens Your Character
How you respond to failure reveals a lot about you as a person. When you are faced with defeat, what kind of ethics do you stand behind?
“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.” -Hellen Keller
Adversity will reveal your true character. Do you lie and blame others? Or do you own up to your mistakes and try to fix them?
Your level of character dictates how much you can trust a person. If you want to be successful in life, you must have strong character.
10. Failure Makes Success That Much Sweeter
Have you ever heard the phrase, “Nothing worth having comes easy”? Too often we find ourselves trying to take the path of least resistance.
But the reality is that failure adds value to your success. It allows you to enjoy success even more when you finally do achieve it. How many of the stories you read about success involved some sort of struggle? Every single one.
Imagine watching your favorite TV show with no obstacles for the main character. It wouldn’t be very interesting would it? The reason we love these stories is because we can relate to failure. So let failure add value to your life. Allow it to help you enjoy your successes that much more.
Conclusion
Fear of failure can destroy your chance at success. But learning to use failure as a tool can propel you forward like nothing else.
Each time you fail and learn from your mistakes, you’re one step closer to success. So stop trying to land every jump you attempt. Instead, fail as much as you can. Learn from your mistakes. You’ll thank yourself later.
Save for later
- 10 Signs of a Cheating Partner You Should Never Ignore - January 11, 2026
- 10 Effective Ways to Practice Gratitude - November 20, 2025
- 12 Everyday Habits That Can Diminish Your Memory Power - November 15, 2025
