Off Message

The Department of Education is depriving students of a key learning opportunity: to fail

Samuel Beckett: his ‘fail better’ line from Worstward Ho has gained an improbable currency among business coaches and Silicon Valley types Pic: Bruce Davidson

Why are we so afraid of failure in our lives? If I’m being truthful, I’ve learned more from failure than I ever have from scaling the giddy heights of success. Failure is a line in the sand; it’s an exam you didn’t pass; a job you didn’t get; a relationship that broke up; the death of a loved one (death, too, feels like the most acute and terrible type of failure; a failure ...