Why You Must Fail Before You Succeed

Those who succeed know failure all too well.

They’ve met it more times than they can count.

They embrace it with each step they take in their language learning journey knowing that only when they open themselves up to opportunity of failure will they open themselves up to success.

They know that failure means about them only what they allow it to.

What failure means

Failure means we’ve discovered the limitations of our current technique. We’ve tried and realized that some component of our strategy is ineffective – so we improve. We try. We experiment. We’re in a constant process of discovering what works through finding what doesn’t.

Failure is the result of effort. It shows strength and commitment - even more than our successes do. Our failures guide our paths through life and learning, redirecting us where necessary and teaching us lessons about how to improve our weaknesses.

The courageous fail.

They perceive failure as a notch on the ladder to success - because it is. As they climb, they repair the weak steps on their ladder to infinity.

They discover that success exists not at the end, but where they are now and always now. Success exists only because failure does.

And so they become obsessed, not quite with failure, but with putting themselves in positions where failure is likely because they wish to challenge what they know and what is possible. They want to make their own discoveries about the world around them - and so they do.

They fail in order to succeed.

They fail in order to invent.

They fail in order to learn.

They fail and fail and fail until failure no longer means to fail.