Celebrating failure

Biographies of great people, interviews with successful entrepreneurs, and podcast episodes with famous creators. The world doesn’t lack celebrations of greatness. It should be inspiring to hear from someone successful, it should motivate you to do more, to work harder, and to strive for greatness. But like many other good things in life, too much of it can be detrimental. You can ingest only so many success stories before starting to feel bad for not being one of them. It’s partly why social media mostly sucks. It’s performative. Everyone is showing the best parts of their lives while the shitty moments are kept private, away from public eyes.

Failure should be shared. Trying and failing at something should be celebrated. Not because of the failure itself but because that’s the only way to achieve something worthwhile. Failing is inevitable. Everyone has to go through it and confront it one way or another. It’s part of the process and it’s something we should be more upfront and open about it. And again, it should be celebrated.

Does anyone make a podcast with interviews with people who didn’t have success? To people who tried hard but ultimately failed? I’d love to listen to those stories.