When we first heard that some of the world’s best surgeons have the highest failure rates…
…we thought it had to be nonsense.
Surely the best surgeons should have the best outcomes.
But then we learned something fascinating.
The best surgeons often take the cases nobody else is willing to touch.
The impossible tumors.
The desperate emergencies.
The patients with almost no chance.
In other words, they are not failing more because they are less skilled.
They are failing more because they are willing to attempt what others are too afraid, inexperienced, or incapable to handle.
And once we understood this, we started seeing the same pattern everywhere.
The best entrepreneurs usually carry a trail of visible failures behind their success.
The best scientists run hundreds of experiments that go nowhere before discovering something extraordinary.
The best athletes miss shots most people would never dare to take.
Yet when we look only at outcomes without context, excellence can appear indistinguishable from failure.
This is a powerful reminder for how we think about mistakes.
Maybe failure is not always evidence of incompetence.
Sometimes it is evidence of courage.
Sometimes it is evidence that a person is operating at the outer edge of difficulty, uncertainty, and possibility.
And that leads to two important thoughts we wanted to share with you today.
First…
Many times, success needs to be measured differently than you once believed.
If you only count clean victories, safe decisions, and perfect records, you may accidentally reward caution instead of greatness.
Second…
You are allowed to make mistakes.
In fact, some mistakes are proof you are attempting something meaningful.
Proof you are stretching beyond the comfortable.
Proof you are taking responsibility for challenges most people avoid.
Of course, this does not mean carelessness is admirable.
It means courage always carries the possibility of failure attached to it.
And one of the quiet tragedies of life is how many people never discover what they are capable of because they become too frightened of failing visibly.
So if you have a few scars…
A few failed attempts…
A few decisions that did not work out the way you hoped…
You may be closer to real growth than you think.
Because the people who live an amazing life rarely spend their time protecting a perfect record.
They know that success and failure are two sides of the same coin.
Love and Wisdom,
Monica and Stefan
