Embracing failure: The key to innovation and growth
By Tara Jacobsen
It’s okay to fail. This is my biggest life lesson as an entrepreneur, innovator, business owner and educator. But, in the same breath, you must dust yourself off and get back up and start again.
There’s an innate fear of failure and it’s compounded by the fact that many people are immensely afraid of the aftermath: the uncomfortable space of uncertainty. The space between accepting that it didn’t work and moving on to the next chapter.
This is where we grow.
With 25 years of experience as an entrepreneurship educator and business owner across the Sunshine Coast, Brisbane, and regions including founding the first private RTO in Port Hedland, I’ve had my fair share of missteps (and some weren’t small). I now use these lessons to inspire and empower young people to become the next generation of innovators and big thinkers.
Failure is often seen as a black-and-white outcome in schools, tied to success or failure with little room for growth. However, in today’s rapidly evolving world, where employers value adaptability and human skills, it’s crucial for young people to embrace failure as a learning opportunity. As an entrepreneur, I’m passionate about helping them view setbacks as steps toward growth, resilience, and eventual success.
If my experiences have taught me anything, it’s that innovation sits comfortably alongside uncertainty. Over time, you learn to embrace this uncertainty, but we only really get comfortable with its presence when we experience roadblocks or failures. These shape us and build resilience over time.
When engaging with young people in our programs, we focus on fostering future-thinking skills, durability, and building their human capability to become what we call “purple people”, equipped with the critical thinking, creativity, and real-world problem-solving skills needed to thrive not just in business, but in life.
There’s a misconception that young people should have it all figured out by the time they leave school, that their future pathway should be clearly defined and that their career goals should be mapped out and aligned with their subject selection. But this just isn’t true.
Young people don’t need to have all the answers when they graduate. In fact, this should be far from a requirement. It should be, if anything, ground zero for exploring the skills and opportunities that enable them to confidently explore, adapt and grow. They need an environment and culture that nurtures mistakes and uses them as turning points in their educational journey.
How we define success and hold conversations centered around young people and their future aspirations is critical. We need to foster a less linear approach and encourage young people to invest their energy into areas of passion, joy, and exploration. This is where true success can occur.
With the development of portfolio careers becoming increasingly important, we must equip young people with the diverse skill sets outlined in the World Economic Forum’s 2025 report, such as creativity, critical thinking, resilience and adaptability. These skills may not always develop, be articulated, or be codified in school, but they are vital for navigating the rapidly evolving future of work.
And as they explore, diving in and out of areas of interest, discovering their interests and passions, making mistakes, and at times wading through muddy water, they’ll inadvertently develop the skills to thrive in uncertain environments. They’ll sit more comfortably in new spaces, adapt quickly to change, and handle curly conversations with ease. These life skills, acquired while learning, form the foundation of success.
The biggest challenges that lie ahead for those entering the workforce today aren’t related to an ATAR score. Instead, they are directly tied to how easily we can adapt to change, all kinds of change. From quickly adopting advancing technologies and confidently shifting focus as demands evolve, to incorporating AI into your work and seamlessly merging knowledge and technology, the skills of the future will heavily depend on our ability to fail forward. Those who can keep up with the pace of change, adjusting and evolving as needed, and bouncing back after setbacks, will ultimately thrive.
Tara Jacobsen is Co-Founder & Director at Groei Education