How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? Do you have a favourite failure?
Recorded Adam Peaty said elsewhere, not written here
When I lost that 100m final I spiralled. I went quite aggressive. It is an Adam I don't really recognise.

BBC Sport, 24 July 2024 source ↗

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Joan Didion American writer
Yeah. It’s a grandiose reaction. You are claiming you could really control this, but you failed.
Recorded Academy of Achievement, Academy of Achievement interview, New York, New York, 1 April 2005 source ↗
Angela Merkel Chancellor of Germany, 2005–2021; Leader of the Christian Democratic Union 2000–2018
The Berlin Wall limited my opportunities. It quite literally stood in my way. However, there was one thing which this wall couldn't do through all those years: It couldn't impose limits on my inner thoughts, my personality, my imagination, my dreams and desires.
Recorded Tercentenary Theatre, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, The Harvard Gazette, Harvard University, 30 May 2019 source ↗
Ben Bradlee Executive editor of The Washington Post, 1968–1991
We made one mistake in a story in which we said that — Woodward and Bernstein said — that there was a slush fund of $300,000 set up in the Committee to Re-elect the President, and it was controlled by Haldeman, and that one of the witnesses had testified to that slush fund to the grand jury investigating Watergate. ... It turned out that he hadn’t been asked, and that interested us a great deal, because if the prosecution wasn’t asking him those interesting questions, that suggested that there was a reason they weren’t, and the reason might be that they were trying to cover it up. Anyway, it took two days, and we got confirmation that there was, and in fact there was a slush fund of $750,000.
Recorded Academy of Achievement recorded interview, American Academy of Achievement, 1 May 2003 source ↗
Twyla Tharp Choreographer, dancer and author
You called it vision, I call it analyzing what my strengths were. It just so happened there was no market whatsoever for my strength, unless I was interested in becoming a show dancer, for which I tried, but I’m not tall enough. Also, when I auditioned for the Radio City Rockettes, they said, “We love your fouettés, but can’t you smile?” And things of that nature transpired between me and a commercial future. So, I managed to find a way of subsisting in the beginning by doing odd jobs, Kelly Girl temp work, selling perfume at Macy’s, and any and everything to be able to sustain studying and beginning a career with a group of dancers who were willing to devote five years, really, of their lives to me, working very seriously, with complete commitment, for not a penny.
Recorded Academy of Achievement (achievement.org), 1993 source ↗

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