If You Don’t Fail Enough, You’ll Become Irrelevant Fast

Cover Photo by Javardh on Unsplash

Why the school system doesn’t set you up for success

In grade school and high school, I wasn’t an “A” student. I thought this would hurt me in my career growing up. I had fears that I wouldn’t be employable because I wouldn’t get the grades school expected of me.

Did you or do you have the same fears?

If you Google successful people who weren’t good in school, you’ll be surprised to see famous entrepreneurs as well as presidential candidates and elected presidents.

The reality is that grades aren’t that important.

You may also already know that Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Thomas Jefferson, John D. Rockefeller, Richard Branson, James Cameron, and Walt Disney, for example, all dropped out of school. I also dropped out years ago and never looked back. People told me I’d regret it. I never did.

Now, don’t go to your school or to your parents screaming “I’M OUT”. Don’t drop out because some others before you did and were successful.

As much as I dislike a lot of things about the school system, it doesn’t mean it’s broken for everyone. The school system actually does work for the majority of people. It’s when you’re an outlier that it stops working.

Schools have one mission: make you learn. If your school doesn’t foster a quality education for YOU, find another one. If you can’t find another one, there are alternatives. You’d be surprised (or maybe not) that schools run like businesses and their financial interests very often supersede your educational interests. Good educators hate that.

Here’s an avant-gardist mindset not everyone will share with me:

Drop out of school when it doesn’t allow you to experiment and fail.

In 2018, I had a single New Year resolution, and I managed to keep it the whole year — 2018 is the year I will fail the most.

And boy did I fail in 2018!

Looking back, this was a genius resolution because it put me in the mindset that it’s okay to not have everything figured out. It’s okay to not get straight As all the time (or at all).

This resolution engrained in me the idea of accepting that life will not always go according to plan. In fact, it rarely does.

While typically I’d beat myself down from having “failed” — because that’s what you and I learned for most of our lives — I now accepted the situation, learned from it, and adapted.

The number one most important skill to learn in life, and especially in the 21st century, is to become adaptable. It’s how the human race survived and thrived and you, my friend, are no different.

How do you become more adaptable?

I could write a whole book on the topic, but the short answer is by failing. Or rather, experimenting.

“I have not failed. I only found 10,000 ways that don’t work.” — Thomas A. Edison

Find ways that don’t work. People call those “failures”. I call them learning lessons or experiments.

If your school doesn’t prepare you for the realities of the adult world — failing regularly — it might be time to think about how you can make that happen for you. The sooner in life the better.

Like me, you might even want to record your failures in a “Fail Journal”.


Did you know that Leonardo DaVinci and Benjamin Franklin, some of the world’s most famous polymaths, never cared for school?

You may argue that times were different then, but I’d urge you to reconsider that thinking.

In the late stages of Franklin’s life, during the Industrial Revolution, schools were important because the world needed specialists. Today, some specialists are needed. However, in Homo Deus, Yuval Noah Harari shows research on why specialists will have their jobs/functions replaced first by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Biotechnologies.

The good news is that a lot of you figured out that specialization isn’t the best approach anymore. Out of the 900 SkillUp Academy learners, only 21% of them said they’re interested in becoming specialists. 79% of people want to learn many skills, realizing the need to adapt*.

*These results are slightly skewed since SkillUp Academy is a platform for learners looking for alternative methods of learning.

Nonetheless, in the 21st century, we’re seeing a revival of polymathy. And currently, schools are not equipped to help you with that matter.

I can’t stress that enough:

If you think your skillset is future-proof, I guarantee you you’re wrong.

Last year, I wrote a controversial piece called I Reinvent Myself Every 6 Months and So Should You. I still stand by it today. Sadly, the school system is not helping you reinvent yourself. It’s not letting you fail enough.

“The art of reinvention will be the most critical skill of this century.” — Yuval Noah Harari

You’ve grown to dislike failure. It makes you uncomfortable. Failure is the number one fear. You’re afraid to disappoint. It makes you feel all kinds of negative emotions. Sadness, anger, jealousy, lust — just to name a few.

Failure without learning is bad, but in general, failure is better than success.

When you accept failure and adopt a positive mindset, you learn from those failures. They’re not failures anymore, they’re learning lessons. Continually learning is the key to staying relevant in any situation. Turning learning into a habit makes you truly adaptable.

To me “failing” — or more specifically experimenting — is the cornerstone of learning. Of course, if you can avoid failed experiments by learning from others who have failed before you, that’s perfect. But otherwise, if you aim for success on your first try, you’ll almost always be disappointed. At some point, you stop trying. Most adults are at that point early in life.

Don’t you dare give up!

Because the school system didn’t prepare you for the real world, it doesn’t mean you’re a failed experiment. It’s never too late to skill up, adapt, and reinvent yourself.

You are not irrelevant. I won’t let you convince yourself you are. Dare experiment again. Be the curious child you once were. Be fearless like a child.

What’s the worst that can happen?

You can do this!

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