Failure. Few people like to talk about it – especially when you’re running a business, leading people or trying to build something from scratch.
There’s a silent pressure to always get it right, to maintain a firm stance, to show that everything is under control. But the truth, which I’ve learned in practice, is that failure is part of the game – and more than that: it can be the turning point.
I’ve experienced situations in which everything seemed planned, validated and promising… until it went wrong.
A product that didn’t get traction…
A partnership that didn’t work. A strategy that seemed right on paper, but failed in execution. And the immediate feeling was the same: frustration, doubt, the weight of having disappointed – myself, the team, the dream.
For a long time, I associated failure with a sign that I might not be ready. But, over time, I realized that it wasn’t the end.
Most of the time, it was just an unexpected curve. A redirection that the road made a point of imposing – not to knock me down, but to teach me something that the straight path would never show me.
Failure taught me to observe better. To listen more deeply. To distrust my certainties and question assumptions. I began to realize that, behind every mistake, there was a lesson that only reveals itself to those who are willing to follow even without the ideal roadmap.
And that changed everything
I began to give less weight to perfection and more value to consistency. Less focus on the aesthetics of success and more attention to the real construction process.
The great lessons of my journey did not come from easy successes, but from the stumbles that forced me to evolve. It was after an unsuccessful launch that I restructured the entire business model.
It was when faced with a broken partnership that I understood the importance of deep alignment of values. And it was only when I accepted that not everything is under control that I began to lead with more empathy and less rigidity.
Today, I look at each failure with respect
Not with pride, but with the awareness that it was there, on the curve, that I became more strategic. That I learned to react faster, to adjust the route, to listen to the market – and to myself – more truthfully.
So, if you are facing a difficult time, in which things did not go as expected, perhaps this is not the finish line.
Maybe it is just the road asking you to slow down, take a closer look and follow a new path. Failure is not the opposite of success. It is part of it.
Sometimes, all that is missing is to look at the curve with different eyes.
