Failure Quotes
Failure is feedback with consequences. The consequences make it sting, but the feedback makes it valuable—if you extract it. Failure quotes are useful because they frame that feedback as data, not identity. Most people don't. They either suppress the failure (pretend it didn't happen, blame external factors) or internalize it as identity (I failed therefore I am a failure). Both responses waste the information. Suppression means you'll repeat the mistake. Internalization means you'll stop trying. Neither learns the actual lesson: this specific approach didn't work in this context, so try a different approach. That's it. Failure isn't moral judgment; it's data. Thomas Edison's famous line about finding 10,000 ways that didn't work isn't inspirational platitude—it's accurate description of iterative process.
"There is something radically wrong with a civilization, and a system of education, which permit 98% of the people to go through life as failures. But I did not write this book for the purpose of moralizing on the rights and wrongs of the world; that would require a book a hundred times the size of this one. p. 85"
"A success that has outlived its usefulness may, in the end, be more damaging than failure. p. 159"
"Limits, like fear, are often just an illusion."
"Failure is only a permanent condition if you quit."
"The fear of losing money is real. Everyone has it. Even the rich. But it’s not fear that is the problem. It’s how you handle fear. It’s how you handle losing. It’s how you handle failure that makes the difference in one’s life. That goes for anything in life, not just money. The primary difference between a rich person and a poor person is how they handle that fear."
Website: Wikiquote - Robert Kiyosaki (Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money-That the Poor and the Middle Class Do Not!)
"Failure doesn't exist. It's just a way to learn."
"External things are not the problem. It’s your assessment of them. Which you can erase right now."
"Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out."
"You missed your workout? Good. You have more energy for tomorrow. You failed the test? Good. You know what to study."
"Many unfortunate human situations unfold [...] where people who face very bad options take desperate gambles, accepting a high probability of making things worse in exchange for a small hope of avoiding a large loss. Risk taking of this kind often turns manageable failures into disasters. Ch. 29, "The fourfold pattern" pp. 318-319."
"Thomas A. Edison "failed" ten thousand times before he perfected the incandescent electric light bulb. That is--he met with temporary defeat ten thousand times, before his efforts were crowned with success. p. 73"
"The better a man is, the more mistakes will he make - for the more new things he will try. I would never promote a man into a top level job who had not made mistakes, and big ones at that. Otherwise he is sure to be mediocre. p. 147"
"I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."
"We learn more from our failures than our successes."
"People who avoid failure also avoid success."
Website: Wikiquote - Robert Kiyosaki (Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money-That the Poor and the Middle Class Do Not!)
"You have to embrace the struggle and the failure that comes with it."
"Treat what you don't have as nonexistent. Look at what you have, the things you value most, and think of how much you'd crave them if you didn't have them."
"Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be."
Book: Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court
"When things are going bad: Good. It means you are still in the game. It means you have the opportunity to make it better."
"A recurrent theme of this book is that luck plays a large role in every story of success; it is almost always easy to identify a small change in the story that would have turned a remarkable achievement into a mediocre outcome. Introduction, p. 9."
"Psychologists have correctly said that when one is truly ready for a thing, it puts in its appearance. When the opportunity came, it appeared in a different form, and from a different direction than... expected. That is one of the tricks of opportunity. It has a sly habit of slipping in by the back door, and often it comes disguised in the form of misfortune, or temporary defeat. Perhaps this is why so many fail to recognize opportunity... p. 13"
"Why would I think about missing a shot I haven't taken?"
"The only way to learn is to fail."
"“It’s a Texan’s attitude toward risk, reward and failure I’m talking about. It’s how they handle life. They live it big."
Website: Wikiquote - Robert Kiyosaki (Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money-That the Poor and the Middle Class Do Not!)
"I only see the failure as a way to learn."
"Is any man afraid of change? Why, what can take place without change? What then is more pleasing or more suitable to the universal nature?"
"If you're not making mistakes, then you're not doing anything. I'm positive that a doer makes mistakes."
"A failure to plan is a plan for failure. But a plan that can't adapt to failure is even worse."
"Most of us are good "starters" but poor "finishers" of everything we begin. Moreover, people are prone to give up at the first signs of defeat. There is no substitute for persistence. Failure cannot cope with Persistance. p. 86"
Why these quotes matter
Failure matters because it's the only reliable teacher for complex skills. You can study theory forever, but until you try and fail, you don't know where your understanding gaps are. Failure exposes those gaps brutally and specifically. It also builds resilience: each failure you survive proves that failure isn't fatal. This evidence accumulates into confidence that you can handle setbacks, which becomes self-fulfilling. Finally, failure creates optionality: every failed attempt teaches you something, and those lessons compound into insights that enable breakthroughs. The person who never fails never learns what they don't know, which means they hit a ceiling determined by their initial understanding. The person who fails frequently smashes through that ceiling because they're constantly upgrading their mental models.
How to apply them daily
After every significant failure, conduct a structured review: What was the desired outcome? What actually happened? What caused the gap? What would you do differently next time? Write this down—your brain will try to protect your ego with comforting lies; writing forces honesty. Then categorize the failure: was it execution (you knew what to do but did it poorly), strategy (your approach was flawed), or information (you made the best decision with available information but didn't have crucial data)? Each requires different response. Execution failures need practice. Strategy failures need better frameworks. Information failures need better research before deciding. Also, separate yourself from your failures: you are not your results. You're someone who produces results through actions. When results disappoint, change actions, not identity. Finally, increase your failure rate deliberately. If you're not failing regularly, you're not attempting things at the edge of your ability, which means you're stagnating.
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"Failure is not the opposite of success—it's the price of admission. The question isn't whether you'll fail but whether you'll extract the lesson or waste the experience. Fail fast, fail often, fail forward. Every failure that teaches something is progress disguised as setback."