Falling Forward: Embracing Failure on the Road to Success

Everyone stumbles. Everyone falls. The difference between those who make it and those who don’t often comes down to one thing: the willingness to pick yourself up and keep going.

Whether you’re starting a new business, shifting strategy, or exploring uncharted territory, failure is not just likely, it’s valuable. Yes, valuable. Failure can often teach you more than success ever will, if you’re paying attention.

This is where the concept of Survivor Bias comes in. Survivor Bias is the logical error of concentrating on the people or things that made it past a selection process, while overlooking those that didn’t. We often celebrate success stories without acknowledging the many failures that preceded them, or the many others who tried and fell short. This skews our perception of what’s truly required to succeed.

Understanding this bias is important because it reminds us to NOT ignore the lessons embedded in failure. Every setback has something to teach us about what didn’t work, what needs fixing, and where resilience is needed.

When you plan for mistakes and build systems, mindsets, and strategies that expect some degree of falling down, it doesn’t automatically mean you’re being pessimistic. It means you’re being smart. Being prepared to fail is a kind of like an armor. It cushions the blow and makes it easier to get up, brush yourself off, and move forward with more knowledge than you had before. And when you do succeed, that success is more than just a trophy. It can be a reflection of the work, the observation, and the learning that got you there. The fall doesn’t define you. What you do after you fall does.

Written by blog contributor: Holly Gibbons