Over the years, after talking with tens of thousands of entrepreneurs, artists and creatives, almost every success story we’ve heard has been filled with stories of failure. Unfortunately, in our view the media rarely covers these parts of the story – instead we often read summaries that make it seem like success happened “overnight.” However, what we’ve learned in our conversations with so many successful folks is that failure is core ingredient in the recipe for future success. Below, we’ve shared some fascinating stories of failure from folks who have ultimately found great success.

Amanda Madtes

Just this morning after I poured coffee, I opened up my business messages.
This was Not the message you want at Any time.
It was from a new Client that had ordered a set of leg protectors.
She had sent Photos of them ripped up.
Her Dog had only worn them for one day.
She was frustrated and rightly so.
I’m still trying to figure out what happened but we have a very small complaints percentage,
I feel like we have have failed. Read more>>

Kristen Whirley

I think most people who garden will tell
you, plan to fail. There are so many things to consider when growing flowers or plants, and there is much that is out of your control. It has taught me many lessons about how to adapt to our life circumstances. There will be seasons that are easy, and seasons that are more challenging. Our second year being open was a big failure because it was so dry, and we were unprepared to water such a large area. The next year we came back ready, and it was better than ever. Sometimes you have to experience failures to learn and grow. After all, “Success is buried in the garden of failure.”-Rick Wakeman Read more>>

Katy Weaver

I recently had to fire a client which felt like a massive failure to me, but ultimately taught me a LOT about business, even in my 15th year.

This couple reached out about their wedding and had a phone consult with me. I had a little bit of a hard time connecting with them over our call, and didn’t really expect them to book. But they booked me anyways a few weeks after the call. The difficult thing was that they wanted me to split my normal coverage over two days, at two different venues. One of the venues requires a ride up a mountain, and they wanted me to ride up early and ride back down later, despite being beyond the number of hours they had booked. This didn’t sit well with me and it felt like my boundaries were being crossed, and I already felt really frustrated. I was excited to take photos at the venue but felt like I was about to get taken advantage of. Read more>>

Emma Rose Milligan

Talking about failure is one of my favorite things, because failure is the only constant in any creative pursuit. It sounds cliche to say that I embrace it, but to me it’s always a net positive because it shows I’m taking action and risk in going after what I want. I look at failure or rejection as just a new direction from my initial plan, and nearly all of the time recognize there was some necessary lesson in it all. Read more>>

Hannah Veldhoen

As a stand-up comedian, my job relies on failure. Most audiences have no idea how much effort goes into making one of the jokes they hear successful. Some people will even approach me after a show and ask, “Did you think of all that on the spot?”. Flattered, but no. For every joke I tell that works, I’ve got pages of jokes that were met with silence and confusion. The best/ worst part of comedy is the instant reaction. You take a risk and immediately get your response. Unlike other forms of art and performance, part of getting better at comedy involves performing in front of an audience. I could tell jokes into my mirror for the rest of my life and never know if any of them work. This also means the only way I can get better is through public failure. So when you ask, “Do you have a story of a time you’ve failed?” Read more>>