Quotes on failure designed for success

Fundamentals of Growing Fearless – Part 7

May 12, 2025

Good day, dear community!

Today, I’d like to share a few powerful quotes from my book Fear Enough, centered around one of the most misunderstood words in our culture: failure.

This is a short piece, but one I hope will spark something in you.

The word failure has been used and misused in countless ways.

Sometimes it’s glorified as the ultimate badge of entrepreneurship. Other times, it’s used to shame those who took a risk and didn’t get what they were after.

But what really matters is: How do you define it?

I hope to awaken your curiosity to redefine what failure means to you.

Here are a few quotes from Fear Enough:

“We can fail even when trying our best to achieve something. That suggests that effort is not a good strategy to avoid failure.”

Even our most honest effort can’t control all circumstances.
Failure is always a possibility.

“Not calling the electrician to fix a loose socket for months is a minor failure that can end in catastrophe.”

Small failures, unattended, can grow into serious consequences.
They accumulate silently and often increase the risk of unexpected outcomes.

“There is no way of avoiding failure at some level and at any time. The question is, what is failure’s function?”

Personally, I believe its function is to surface our deepest fears.

“As you might be thinking, we learn from failure. If that is so, why do we keep failing?”

Because we often obsess over analyzing circumstances while ignoring the fears that shaped our choices in the first place.

“The possibility of failure remains despite the learnings from the past.

Experience helps. But even seasoned professionals fail. It’s not about eliminating risk, it’s about understanding our relationship with it.

So let me ask — if failure can happen because of unattended fears:

How often do you explore your own fears or the fears of your team during project planning?

Do you know the fears of your closest colleagues or family members?

If not, you have an opportunity.
These conversations might help you prevent repeated mistakes — and open up entirely new forms of support and understanding.

I know I may sound like a dreamer, but I honestly believe the reason we don’t yet live in peace and prosperity is because we keep trying to win battles instead of facing the fears that created them.

We fail because we fear.