Simon Sinek Says Successful People Learn Lessons From Failure

Leadership author Simon Sinek said he has never met a successful person who learned anything when things went well. He told host Chris Williamson on the Modern Wisdom podcast that people learn the lessons that help them achieve when things go wrong.

Sinek added that the most successful people hit zero or came close to it almost every single time. He described failure as the gift that precedes success.

A 2019 Northwestern University study examined 46 years of venture-capital investments and other data. Researchers concluded that every winner begins as a loser, but only when people learn from the experience. Dashun Wang, professor of management and organizations at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, said people who failed did not necessarily work less.

He noted they sometimes made more unnecessary changes instead of focusing on what needed improvement.

Sinek’s comments referenced the career of Apple cofounder Steve Jobs. In 1985 Apple’s board removed Jobs from his role; he returned in 1997. In a 2005 Stanford University commencement address, Jobs said remembering he would die soon helped him overcome fear of failure. He stated that almost everything falls away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.