Johannes Haushofer is an Assistant Professor of Psychology and Public Affairs at Princeton University. He studies the psychological consequences of poverty, and how those consequences affect economic behavior. He did his undergraduate work at Oxford and got a PhD from Harvard.
He’s also failed a lot. And he’s not ashamed of it. In fact, he publicly posts a CV of his failures (a one-page document which he admits has actually received far more attention than his entire body of academic work).
As he explains:
“Most of what I try fails, but these failures are often invisible, while the successes are visible. I have noticed that this sometimes gives others the impression that most things work out for me. As a result, they are more likely to attribute their own failures to themselves, rather than the fact that the world is stochastic, applications are crapshoots, and selection committees and referees have bad days. This CV of Failures is an attempt to balance the record and provide some perspective.”
Haushofer’s failure CV, and his far more robust list of career success, underscores the idea that while successful people don’t allow themselves to fail because of a lack of effort or engagement, they repeatedly put themselves in failure’s path. They’re willing to try things that might work. When they fail, they learn from it, shake it off, and come back smarter and stronger the next time. They’re not ashamed of failure. It’s actually part of their strategy for success.
If you made your own failure CV, how long would it be? Would the list be comprised of challenging things you took on full force, came up short, then learned from and moved on? The longer that list is, the smarter, more prepared, and ultimately more successful you’re likely to be.
Too many high school students think they have to be perfect to get into college. What a ridiculously unfair notion. It’s true what they say—nobody’s perfect, especially the most successful people.