Why Do We Fail?

It’s hard to know exactly why people fail, but these are some of the most quoted reasons of failure:

Education

Our view of education is outdated to justify failure. I would agree that a poor education on the home and a mediocre culture might be real reasons behind failure, but not education academically speaking (frequently the most mentioned). Lack of traditional credentials nowadays means nothing since it’s by critical and outside-of-the-box thinking that exceptional people do exceptional things. Educational institutions perpetuate a mentality and a dependence that are not suitable for today’s success. In fact, I would dare to say that most people who consciously skip higher education, and can present rational and valuable reasons to do it, are more suited to reach their goals than those that do it because it’s “the next step.”

Laziness

Laziness exists, without a doubt. The problem is that it’s very hard for lazy people to change it because they look for it in the wrong place. Contrary to the popular opinion, I don’t believe laziness is a part of someone’s personality, but an effect context has over our mind. Work near your bed, and you’ll get less done than if you go to a library or an isolated table on a coffee shop. Most people can stop being lazy but they don’t know how and are too lazy to find out.

Laziness is a reason behind failure, but it’s one of the easiest ones to overcome.

One more thought on laziness: it’s human and in some cases desirable. Here’s Magnus Carlsen, 19 year old and the best chess player in the world:

Organisation is not my thing; I am chaotic and tend to be lazy. My trainer recognised that and as a rule allowed me to practise whatever I felt like at the time. It’s like this: When I am feeling good, I train a lot. When I feel bad, I don’t bother. I don’t enjoy working to a timetable.

Economy

We could think of economy as rules of a market, in which case I believe it can be an obstacle too big to overcome. Economy is just too powerful for one individual to beat.

We can also define it as the ups and downs of a market, in which case it ends up working better as a justification for laziness or conformity than a real problem.

Capacity

One of the most controversial, since the world is fixated on telling everyone that they are awesome, but the good thing about it is that lack of capacity only prevents success in very few areas.

If you want to be a soccer player, there’s no way around it: you have to be really good. But in most cases, like in the corporate world, quoting lack of capacity as a reason for failure is all about political correctness. We all know examples of people who got promoted because they were friends with the boss, or because they worked there for many years.

We could mention blogging as well. Does popularity mean value? Quite the contrary.

It’s important to remind yourself that you may fail for being too good. This is the best reason to fail.

Society

Another contextual reason, and a truly tough one to overcome. Discrimination, for example. How many women or black people have failed because “it wasn’t their time”? It’s true that this is changing more and more as time passes, but it still exists.

My only advice for those that are suffering it is to fight. There has never been better chances of winning against societal disadvantages than now, but it would be ignorant of me not to mention it as a reason for failure.

Luck

Ah, my personal favorite. Almost of all of the previously mentioned reasons can be grouped into luck. Some time ago Duff McDuffee tweeted a series of thoughts about luck and success, which I found refreshing to read in the middle of this Disney world of over-positivity and demagogic messages of ambition:

The secret to success is luck. Sure success requires hard work, good strategies, etc., but the missing ingredient is usually luck. So if you’re not successful after doing everything right, consider that maybe you’re just unlucky. Similarly, if you are successful and someone asks you your secret, you should say “I was lucky.” Most everything else is confirmation bias.

Another time-tested success secret is to compete unfairly by pretending to be a peer with those below your weight class, Tim Ferris style. Since your success amongst your peers is largely dependent on luck, we often stack the odds in our favor by competing against non-peers. All competitive advantages are an attempt to trick your competitors, and only work as long as nobody else knows the trick. We define certain competitive advantages as fair and others as unfair, but somewhat arbitrarily, for any real advantage is unfair. We often distinguish between games of chance and games of skill, but luck frames which skills we can develop and to what extent.

Not only I agree, I also believe that quoting hard work a the reason for success is insulting and a close-minded judgment. If all you can do is kick a rock, it doesn’t matter how hard you kick it, you won’t get anywhere in the our competitive jungle.

One of the most important oversights of our society is the reality that we are not all REALLY peers. The peer status comes from the conditions, and not everyone has the same conditions.

PS: If you still have enough bubbles and butterflies in your head to believe in meritocracy, you can watch Alain De Botton’s talk on TED for a deeper understanding of why meritocracy is a beautiful but impossible concept.