Learning to Fail Forward
Leadership coach John C. Maxwell once said, “Fail early, fail often, but always fail forward.” I used to assume great leaders avoided failure. Now I know the opposite is true: failure is often the tuition we pay for wisdom. And for me, that lesson started with worms.
In fifth grade, I decided I could make money raising and selling earthworms. After all, a young Springfield entrepreneur named Johnny Morris had begun selling fishing supplies in the back of his dad’s liquor store. If he could make a business out of bait, why couldn’t I?
I collected coffee grounds from my grandmother, built my own worm farm in the backyard, struck a deal with the local Texaco station, and even made yard signs to drive traffic. My parents must have wondered what they had unleashed. But when my first customer arrived, there was one small issue: I couldn’t find a single worm to sell. Same result with customer number two. When customer number three—my grandfather—showed up with his fishing rod in hand, he surveyed the situation and gently said, “I think you need some practice raising worms.”
My bait empire collapsed before it got started. I was embarrassed. But what I lost in pride I gained in perspective. I learned that effort doesn’t guarantee success, plans require research, and not every idea deserves a “For Sale” sign.
Failure also taught me something else: it’s not fatal. Instead of giving up on entrepreneurship, I pivoted. After visiting the MU Extension office for guide sheets, I started growing pumpkins. Unlike worms, pumpkins stay put. For the next several years, I sold cooking and decorative pumpkins around Ash Grove. That small victory nudged me toward marketing and eventually toward a career helping people and communities grow.
The older I get, the more I’m convinced that failure isn’t the opposite of success—it’s part of it. Success tends to reward our confidence; failure tends to reveal our character. Success feels good; failure makes us wiser. And wisdom, as Maxwell says, is “always extracted from adversity.”
So if you’ve failed recently, welcome to the club. Wear it lightly. Learn quickly. Adjust often. And when something flops, don’t bury the story—harvest the lesson. Worms taught me that much.
And for the record, I still think Johnny Morris charges too much for worms.
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