Is Failure the real key to success? Is it true? Math will help you!

Failure is the key to success

Is there any truth to this? Can we prove it? The answer lies in mathematics!

The phrase “Failure is the key to success” is one we've all heard in countless motivational talks. But is there really any truth behind it? If we ask motivational speakers or famous personalities, they'll usually point to real-life examples. However, it's not guaranteed that failure always leads to success—if that were the case, we’d all be perfect! And if you were to ask them to prove it, they might come up empty-handed. But today, I have the answer, and I'm going to prove it—mathematically!

This idea stems from psychology, not mathematics. Psychologists shape minds with their words and exercises, but math is typically left out of psychological treatments. If you ask them, “Why does this work?” or “How?”, they may struggle to explain. But today, we’re changing that, using mathematics!

Take the words of a tech CEO, Watson, who said, “To achieve success, the only thing you need to do is fail.” The more you fail, the more powerful your success becomes.

In math, a failure is represented as a zero, “0,” and success as one, “1.” Simple, right? These are the very numbers you first learned in kindergarten! They also happen to form the foundation of the device you're reading this on right now. So, how can we use these numbers to demonstrate the psychology behind failure and success?

Let’s take a real-life example—meet Tom.

Tom is 25 years old. He’s finished his studies and is now attending job interviews. He’s skilled, but he struggles with speaking confidently—he’s an introvert.

Tom’s story begins with his first interview. He prepared thoroughly in his field but failed. Being reflective, Tom analyzed the interview and identified a mistake he believed caused his failure. For his second interview, he addressed that issue—but once again, he failed. As before, he analyzed the situation and discovered another mistake, which he corrected for his third interview. And again, he failed. This process repeated itself six more times. But on his eighth attempt, after fixing all his fundamental issues, he finally succeeded.

Now, let’s analyze Tom’s story mathematically. As mentioned earlier, failure is “0,” and success is “1.” Grab a pen and paper for this part.

Here's a simple rule for converting psychology into mathematics:

• If hard work is involved, write from right to left.

• If no hard work is involved, write from left to right.

For Tom’s first failure, write “0” at the rightmost side of the paper. He didn’t give up—he worked hard after each failure, identifying and fixing his mistakes. He failed six more times, so add six more zeros to the left of the first “0.” By this point, Tom’s total value is still zero, representing failure. But on his eighth attempt, he succeeded—so write “1” to the left of the zeros.

Now, you have the number “10000000.”

If Tom had succeeded on his first try, you would’ve simply written “1” on the paper. But that “1” is much smaller than the number he achieved after experiencing failure. Each time Tom failed, his capability multiplied.

Now, imagine if Tom hadn’t worked hard to correct his mistakes after each interview. You’d start writing zeros from the left, and even if he succeeded on the eighth attempt, you’d end up with “00000001.” This number only has the value of “1,” and all those failures would have been wasted.

So, the idea that “Failure is the key to success” only holds true when hard work is part of the process. Without effort, failure is just wasted time. I hope this example clarified the concept for you. We've successfully proved the connection between psychology and mathematics!

This is my theory. If you think it’s silly, try it yourself—grab a sheet of paper and give it a go. You’ll see how math makes sense of what psychologists have long been telling us.

If you have any ideas, suggestions, or just want to share your thoughts, feel free to email me at:

[email protected]

That’s all for today! Stay tuned for more ideas that’ll blow your mind. Thank you!