The Paradox of Failure

The more you lose, the more you win...

Paradox of Failure:

Failure is not the opposite of success, but rather a vital part of achieving it. It is a learning opportunity that helps us improve and grow.

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The more you try the more you fail.
The more you try the more you succeed.

Both statements seem contradictory, but both are simultaneously true.

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There’s a quote that I always come back to when discussing the paradox of failure.

“The master has failed more times than the beginner has even tried“
— Stephen McCranie

This shows that failure is a necessary part of mastery.

Experts might seem like they make no mistakes, but they will almost certainly have failed more times on the road to mastery than a beginner has even tried.

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You might have seen this already, but here’s a great example of this in practice.

Johannes Haushofer, a professor at Princeton University, famously shared his ‘CV of failures’ — a document listing all the degree programs he did not get into and all the academic positions he did not get.

Ironically, this was probably his greatest success.

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Moral of the story; don’t be afraid to fail.

Instead, lean into it.

The more you fail, the more you’ll progress.

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