Life is a Failure

Continuing with our theme of finding optimism in a seemingly pessimistic reality, we must acknowledge a fundamental truth: life is one big failure. But that’s not a bad thing. In fact, there is no success without failure. The greater the success, the greater the failures that likely came before it.

One cannot truly appreciate love without first experiencing loss. You can’t know the thrill of a high without first enduring a low. Otherwise, life is just a bland average, lacking depth and contrast. It’s through trials and tribulations that we come to understand what success really means.

Personal Failures That Led to Growth

Failure has been a defining part of my journey. In fifth grade, I stopped doing my homework, thinking I could get by on test scores alone. My grades tanked, and my punishments at home increased. Eventually, I learned my lesson—doing the work mattered. My grades improved, and I never skipped homework again.

In college, I started trading options, only to watch my savings dwindle. I quickly realized buying options wasn’t for me. But from that failure, I learned a better strategy—selling options—which has since brought me success.

One of my biggest strokes of luck came when I failed to secure an internship at a mid-level accounting firm. A year later, I landed an internship at Deloitte—one of the biggest accounting firms in the world. That initial rejection led me to something better.

My Latest “Failure” and the Lessons It Taught Me

Most recently, I launched a cigar company selling merchandise, and no one bought anything. By all accounts, it was a failure. But what did I gain? Experience in marketing. That knowledge won’t go to waste—it will serve me well in future ventures, whether in Garrett’s Ventures book series or a potential relaunch of the cigar brand.

Failure is only final if you stop trying.

The Failures of the Greats

Even the most successful people in the world have failed—big time.

Steve Jobs was fired from Apple, the very company he founded. Years later, he returned and turned it into the largest company in the world. Elon Musk nearly bankrupted SpaceX after multiple rocket explosions, yet persisted and built one of the most valuable private companies in history. Jeff Bezos tried to compete with eBay by launching Amazon Auctions, only to watch it fail. But from that failure came Amazon Marketplace, now the backbone of Amazon’s success.

Their failures weren’t the end of their stories—they were the beginning of something greater.

Teaching Students to Fail Forward

Children must be taught to fail early and fail often, without letting those failures define them. In Garrett’s Ventures, Garrett experiences failure in friendships, business, and even dealing with bullies. But he learns that success only comes to those who keep trying.

Unfortunately, today’s school system doesn’t encourage this mindset as well as it could. Students are given a lesson, assigned homework, and tested. If they fail often enough, they start believing, "I’m just not good at this," creating a fixed mindset where failure is seen as permanent rather than as an opportunity to improve.

Even with projects, students often complete their work, receive a final grade, and move on. But this isn’t how the real world works. In the workplace, we complete research, draft reports and presentations, and have our work reviewed, critiqued, and revised. Bosses don’t hand out failing grades—they provide feedback and expect improvements.

The Corporate World Embraces Failure—Why Doesn’t School?

Rather than simply grading a project and moving on, teachers should take it one step further. Instead of letting students submit a final project and be done with it, they should review the work and require revisions until it meets a higher standard. This would encourage students to embrace failure as part of the process, rather than as a final judgment.

Maybe the final project isn’t even graded at all—maybe the real value is in learning how to refine, improve, and persist. This would shift students from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset.

From Growth Mindset to Entrepreneurial Mindset

When students learn to embrace failure, they learn to solve problems. Over time, this mindset naturally leads to entrepreneurship. If a student knows how to overcome setbacks, they’ll start seeking out challenges. When problem-solving becomes exciting instead of intimidating, they’ll be drawn to fixing real-world issues. And what does the world need? More problem solvers.

If we teach kids that failure is part of success, we’ll raise a generation of innovators, creators, and leaders who won’t just accept the world as it is—they’ll work to make it better.