Why Ruby Believes Failure Is the Secret to Success

Ruby never saw herself as someone extraordinary. She wasn’t the loudest in the room, nor the most naturally gifted. She didn’t come from wealth or privilege. In fact, she grew up in a small town where dreams often stayed just that... dreams.

But what set Ruby apart, what made her unforgettable, was the way she embraced failure like an old friend. To her, it was never the end... it was always the beginning.

She learned that the hard way.

Ruby’s early twenties were a mess of unfinished plans and half-hearted starts. After graduating college with a communications degree, she hopped from job to job... none of them fulfilling, most of them barely paying the bills.

She tried launching a podcast that no one listened to. She started a blog that collected more digital dust than views. And when she finally landed a job she thought might lead somewhere, the company downsized six months later. Gone.

She remembers sitting on the floor of her tiny apartment, surrounded by moving boxes and unpaid bills, wondering if she was just… destined to fail. Her friends were getting promoted, traveling, moving in with their partners. Ruby? She was moving back in with her parents.

But something shifted during those quiet, heavy days at home. Watching the trees change outside her childhood bedroom, she started to think: Maybe this is it. Maybe this is my rock bottom. But what if this isn’t something to fear? What if this is a blank page, not a dead end?

That’s when she began studying failure... not just her own, but that of people she admired. Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes. She was shocked to learn how many of them had stumbled hard before finding their footing. Oprah had been fired.

Walt Disney had gone bankrupt. Sara Blakely, the founder of Spanx, had been rejected by nearly every investor. Ruby realized she wasn’t alone. She was in good company.

She began documenting her “failures” on social media... everything from botched interviews to embarrassing typos in cover letters. But she didn’t just vent. She reflected.

She shared what she learned from each misstep. Slowly, her vulnerability started attracting followers. People related to her honesty. She wasn’t trying to sell a perfect life. She was showing the messy middle... and that gave others hope.

One day, she posted a story about her failed podcast and how it taught her to listen better. The post went viral. Thousands of people commented, thanking her for her courage. It was the first time Ruby realized: Maybe my failures were never meant to break me. Maybe they were always building me.

It was around this time that she met Charlotte.

Charlotte was a graphic designer who had grown up in a chaotic household. Her parents fought constantly, and her father eventually left when she was 12.

Her mother worked two jobs just to keep the lights on. Charlotte became the caretaker, the steady one in a family that never quite found its footing. She had never known stability, and she craved it so deeply that she worked herself to exhaustion trying to earn it.

When she and Ruby connected online through a mutual friend, they began collaborating on small passion projects. Charlotte was drawn to Ruby’s warmth and resilience.

Ruby was in awe of Charlotte’s discipline and raw talent. But beneath that drive, Ruby saw something familiar... fear. Charlotte was terrified of failing because to her, failure meant chaos. It meant returning to a world where everything could fall apart again.

One night, after a long brainstorming session on Zoom, Ruby shared something that stuck with Charlotte forever.

“You know,” Ruby said, “I used to think that failing meant I wasn’t good enough. But now I think it just means I’m still becoming who I’m meant to be.”

Charlotte went quiet. Then she said softly, “No one’s ever said that to me before.”

From then on, they began building something together... not just a business, but a shared vision. They launched a creative agency focused on authentic storytelling for small brands.

The first few months were rough. Clients were scarce. Money was tighter than ever. But they didn’t panic. They didn’t quit. They failed forward, tweaking their approach, asking better questions, and learning... always learning.

One of their early clients, a small eco-friendly candle brand, went viral thanks to a campaign Ruby and Charlotte created. From there, things snowballed.

Within two years, their agency had six full-time employees and dozens of clients around the country. They were invited to speak at conferences. They were featured in online business magazines.

But Ruby never forgot where it all began: on the floor of her apartment, surrounded by doubt and disappointment. That moment... her lowest... was also the one that made everything possible.

Because without it, she never would have questioned the path she was on. She never would have discovered what truly mattered to her.

To this day, Ruby mentors young women who feel stuck, who feel like they’re failing at life. She tells them: “You are not your worst moment. You are not broken. You are becoming.”

She believes with her whole heart that failure is not the opposite of success... it’s the path to it. It’s the chisel that shapes us, the storm that clears the way, the lesson that strengthens the foundation.

And every time she thinks about giving up or playing it safe, she whispers to herself the same line that started it all:

“Failure isn’t the end. It’s the invitation to begin again, but wiser.”