Failure is an opportunity

Failure can be daunting, but learning how to fail effectively is essential for long-term success. Embracing failure as a learning opportunity rather than a setback builds resilience and paves the way for improvement. However, failing to learn from mistakes means you will only succeed when luck is on your side. Failing is perfecting.

“Failing is a success”

Dashun Wang and his colleagues at Northwestern University go as far as to call failure “the essential prerequisite for success.” After analysing the relationship between failure and success in areas as varied as application grants and terrorist attacks, they concluded that “every winner begins as a loser.” However, they found that persistence alone is not the key to success. Ultimate winners and losers try on average the same amount of times: learning from your failures is what makes the true difference. Some experts, such as Amy Edmondson, argue that failure can be more valuable than success because it teaches us more. She describes “intelligent failure” as the factor that truly sets people apart. Simply repeating the same mistakes will cause you more harm than simply succeeding, but early success might also just be a stroke of beginner’s luck. 

Learning is improving

Indeed, succeeding on a first exam might lead to a false sense of security, causing you to study less, or it could set unrealistically high expectations for the rest of the year. While achieving a strong mark on an exam is always positive, the true value lies in how you use that result. Both positive and negative feedback offers opportunities for growth. People often focus on improvement, but consistency is just as essential. A high mark should reinforce your efforts, not reduce them- encouraging you to study diligently, analyse feedback, and deepen your understanding. Early mistakes, if addressed thoroughly, can be powerful tools for boosting performance on end-of-year exams. Each mistake sticks with you, often due to the discomfort it brings, helping you avoid repeating it. For instance, if you call someone the wrong name, you are more likely to remember their name afterwards; without the initial error, it might take longer to commit it to memory.

Reacting is caring, acting is bettering

While failure can ultimately be positive, no one is immune to its sting: it is truly about learning how to react, and changing how you feel. Feeling discouraged after an exam, for example, is natural and shows that you care about your success. In university or career, the urge to compare yourself to others may arise, yet as French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau observed, this is the source of all of man’s misery. He distinguished between ‘amour de soi’ (self-love) and ‘amour-propre (self-esteem): while self-love is pure and necessary, self-esteem can push us toward unhealthy comparisons. As the saying goes, comparison is the thief of joy.

You never truly know someone else’s path: maybe a classmate’s top marks come at the cost of social isolation or feeling burned out, or perhaps someone landed a job using connections or by demonstrating incredible resilience in difficult circumstances. What matters is staying focused on your own journey, at your own pace. Resilience is highly valued by employers; no one is expected to master every task on their first day. Learning to adapt and persevere demonstrates maturity. Feeling disappointed is natural, but what counts is giving yourself time to recover and then taking action to move forward.

Being better at failing

Most importantly perhaps: do not be afraid to ask for help. Professors, supervisors, classmates, and colleagues are often willing to assist or understand what you are going through. Seeking guidance is better than repeating the same mistakes. Reach out to the marker who gave you a low pass or to the superior who critiqued your presentation. Success often depends more on understanding expectations than on being an expert. Even if you know your curriculum by heart, writing an essay instead of analysing a problem question, for example, will not earn a high mark. Universities provide numerous resources—find out who can assist you with what, and take full advantage of these services. Experiment with study techniques until you discover what works best for you.

Exercise to stay in shape

Being skilled at handling failure requires introspection: What did I do wrong? Maybe the issue is in how you communicate rather than in your knowledge. Perhaps you struggle with applying rules correctly or fail to note important tasks. Adaptation is key—taking action is necessary, but thoughtful reflection shapes those steps. Planning ahead and practising is part of what will make a difference. You need to take into account feedback every time you encounter the exercise you failed. For instance, if you failed to use a particular method during your criminal law problem question exam, prepare your tutorial using it religiously. However, to do that, you need to find a way to understand how the method works; putting it into practice will help you improve, especially when no mark is at stake. Putting into practice what you gathered from your past failures for the first time at the final examen is risky. Think about all the practical training athletes do before their big day, and most importantly, think about why they do so. Injuries and defeats can seriously impact an athlete’s career if the stakes are high, and while this article aims to change the way you see failure, it is not an ode to it. You could be wrong as to what is the root cause of your issues so put your analysis to the test during tutorials: no professional fighter would try an entirely new technique during the finals of a championship.

Understand the why, master the how 

Understanding the mechanism behind the method you have to use can help tremendously, just like you need to understand why you are asked a particular question. What are my professors trying to make me achieve? What skills am I sharpening? The kind of exercise you are asked to master to get your degree is very revealing. Indeed, while some are pretty similar, they can also differ from country to country. For instance, law students in France are trained to write summaries and commentaries of judicial decisions because becoming a judge, for instance, is a distinct career path that you can choose after your studies. In England and Wales, developing argumentative and redactional skills by writing essays is essential since becoming either a barrister or a solicitor is the most common route. In University, exams have a more practical side to them: problem questions, for example, mimic client advising, a skill that lawyers obviously need to have. 

Ultimately, failure can teach you more than success. Determination is crucial, but reflection and change are paramount. Feeling discouraged or comparing yourself to others is human; use these feelings as motivation rather than letting them bring you down. Remember, failure is not fatal.