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The question

How has a setback or failure set you up for later success?
DM
David MacMillan

Scottish organic chemist

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here
I don’t know. That’s a terrible answer I realise, and everyone wants a nice straight forward answer. I think everyone, all scientists, have these kind of wacky ideas along the way, and some of them work and some of them don’t work. And this was one that, you know, came and was successful and went forward, and again it sounds obvious to say we were lucky – but we were lucky, you know, there’s way more ideas fail than ever succeed, and this was one that, you know, we were very excited about at the beginning, we thought it had a very low probability of success, but it took off, and it took off like gangbusters. That was wonderful to see.

Adam Smith, Telephone interview recorded shortly after the prize announcement, Nobel Prize Outreach, 1 October 2022 source ↗

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John Lewis U.S. Representative from Georgia, 1987–2020; Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee 1963–1966
I never thought that we would fail or that I would fail. I knew from time to time we may make some blunders. We may make some mistakes, but we were not going to fail.
Recorded Academy of Achievement interview, Chicago, 10 June 2004 source ↗
Tasuku Honjo Japanese immunologist and Nobel laureate
No, no. Well, you know, biology is such a complex system. It’s totally different from the engineering. We cannot design. Many people tried to find the therapy for cancer, but all failed. And myself, I never expected my research, working on the immune system, would lead to the cancer therapy. But, in a sense, I’m very fortunate that I also thought about it. You know, you have to try many things and if you’re lucky you can hit, but you have to pursue. That’s my feeling.
Recorded Adam Smith, Telephone interview recorded shortly after the prize announcement, Nobel Prize Outreach, 1 October 2018 source ↗
August Wilson Playwright; two Pulitzer Prizes for Drama
I was writing poetry. But I found the theater such an exciting experience that one day I went home to try. I had one character say to the other guy, “Hey, man, what’s happening.” And the other guy said, “Nothing.” I sat there for twenty minutes and neither of my guys would talk. So 1 said to myself, “Well, that’s all right. After all, I’m a poet. I don’t have to be a playwright. To hell with writing plays. Let other people write plays.” I didn’t try to write a play for a number of years after that first experience.
Recorded Bonnie Lyons and George Plimpton, Interview conducted over lunch at the Sheraton Hotel’s Fourteenth Street Bar, Atlanta, The Paris Review, Issue 153, Winter 1999, 1999 source ↗
Cal Ripken Jr. Baseball player; holder of the record for consecutive games played
No. I mean if you fail 70 percent of the time, you had a great year. You're dealing with failure seven out of ten times as a hitter.
Recorded Academy of Achievement interviewer, Academy of Achievement interview, Washington, D.C., 18 August 2020 source ↗

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