Maxwell Leadership Podcast

Episode: Get a Return on Failure

Host: John Maxwell (with Mark Cole and Tracy Morrow)
Date: February 19, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode centers on reframing how leaders view and leverage failure, exploring the concept of getting a positive return on failure. John C. Maxwell teaches listeners to treat failure not as an endpoint, but as fertile ground for growth, learning, and eventual success. Practical strategies and frameworks are provided to help leaders anticipate, embrace, and benefit from failure in their personal and professional lives.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

What Would You Attempt if Failure Returned a Benefit?

[02:40] John Maxwell:

• John opens with a unique question:
  “What would you attempt if you knew that you would get a positive return on the failures that you encountered?”
• He challenges listeners to revisit their risk appetite and goals, suggesting that most people avoid failure, when in reality, learning from failure is essential to sustainable success.

Five Steps to Get a Return on Failure

1. Keep Success and Failure Together

[03:33] John Maxwell:

• Society encourages separating success and failure, but John insists they belong side by side.
• “If I'm on a roll and I'm succeeding and I'm doing really well, I need to keep failure close to me so that I consistently have humility within my life... Humility is essential because humility helps me to be teachable.”
• Success paired with the memory of failure keeps leaders humble and realistic.
• In tough times, remembering past successes builds resilience: “When I'm not doing very well... success close to my failure will help me to have resilience. I'll get back up because I know that I've done well before.”
  • Humility comes from keeping failure with success.
  • Resilience comes from keeping success with failure.

2. Understand Good Misses vs. Bad Misses

[07:09] John Maxwell:

• Not all failure is equal. “Good misses” move you forward (failing forward), while “bad misses” move you backward.
• “On good misses, I make adjustments, and on bad misses, I make excuses. In fact, let me just say this. It's easier to go from failure to success than it is from excuses to success.”
• The key is to extract learning and continuously make changes, rather than searching for justifications or blaming circumstances.

3. Embrace Hard

[08:56] John Maxwell:

• The right mental attitude includes expecting life to be difficult:
  “It's going to take longer than we can ever imagine. It's going to be harder than we ever imagined. So we have to embrace hard if we're going to really succeed and get a return on our failure.”
• Disappointment arises from the gap between lofty expectations and reality. Aligning expectations with reality diffuses disappointment.
• Leaders either move forward or backward—there’s no standing still.
  “We’re going to have to swim upstream all the time. There are no shortcuts to success.”

4. Anticipate Failure

[10:49] John Maxwell:

• Preparation comes from anticipation.
  “How I anticipate something before me determines how much I prepare today.”
• Deciding in advance to adjust, keep moving, and keep believing is crucial for maximizing the learning and return from failure.

5. Develop a Process for Leveraging Failures (Success Cycle)

[11:24] John Maxwell:

• John introduces the “cycle of success” rather than a one-way journey:
  1. Test – “We just test a lot. We try new things all the time.”
  2. Fail – The more you test, the more you’ll fail.
  3. Learn – “The fruit of failure is learning.”
  4. Improve – Results from learning.
  5. Re-enter – Only once improved should you go back in.
• This cycle repeats continuously, compounding growth and minimizing wasted failure.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• John Maxwell [04:28]:
  “Success and failure belong together.”

• John Maxwell [07:38]:
  “It's easier to go from failure to success than it is from excuses to success.”

• John Maxwell [09:55]:
  “Disappointment is the gap between expectation and reality.”

• John Maxwell [12:24]:
  “The fruit of failure is learning. The result of learning is improving. We get better.”

• Mark Cole’s $1.6 Million Lesson [15:13]:
  Mark’s failed book launch cost $1.6 million. John asked him, “Hey, did you learn something?... Boy, I'd pay $1.6 million for you to have that lesson again. Let's go. Let's make it different.”

Practical Applications & Co-Host Reflections

Personalizing Failure

[21:07] Mark Cole:

• Redefines failure as “unmet expectation.”
• Emphasizes that the reluctance to act often stems more from fear of failure than from real consequences.
• “John gets fearful that he’s not trying something that he should be putting an effort in, rather than fearful of, am I going to fail at it?”

Good Misses vs. Bad Misses in Real-life

[27:01] Mark Cole:

• “Are you making adjustments or excuses?”
• Recommends pre-planning for possible points of failure and committing to try again, learning from each attempt.

Embracing Hard – Family Examples

[32:54] Mark Cole / [35:54] Tracy Morrow:

• Mark shares the family mantra: “We were made for hard in our family.”
• Embracing and discussing difficulty openly fosters resilience across generations:
  “When you face failure head on, when you try something so big that’s so hard, so difficult and you embrace that hard with attitude that says ‘we got this,’ it transfers. Belief transfers.” – Mark Cole [35:58]

The Value of the Success Cycle in Leadership

[38:44] Tracy Morrow:

• Failure has become so stigmatized in leadership (“cancel culture”) that many miss its transformative potential.
• “No one is discounted if you learn. If you choose to take a learning posture, a humble and learning posture to learn from your failure and make things right in that place before you re enter really and truly not cover it up, not pretend it didn’t happen.” [37:19]

Actionable Insights

• Adopt a Process: Cycle through test, fail, learn, improve, and re-enter for continual growth.
• Don’t Fear Failure—Plan for It: Take calculated risks knowing that learning and growth will be the return, regardless of success.
• Shift Perspective: See failure as unmet expectation, not as a personal flaw or defeat.
• Embrace Hard Challenges: Do hard things so others around you will too. Make “we are made for hard” part of your culture, family, or business.
• Be Willing to Adjust: After failure, make adjustments—not excuses.

Timestamps for Important Segments

| Segment | Timestamp | |--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------| | John poses central question: “What would you attempt if you’d get a return on failure?” | 02:40 | | 1. Keep Success and Failure Together | 03:33 – 07:09 | | 2. Understand Good Misses vs Bad Misses | 07:09 – 08:56 | | 3. Embrace Hard | 08:56 – 10:49 | | 4. Anticipate Failure | 10:49 – 11:24 | | 5. Success Cycle Process | 11:24 – 14:22 | | Mark Cole shares $1.6 million failure story | 15:13 – 16:39 | | Defining failure as unmet expectation | 21:07 | | Covid example: Making adjustments vs. excuses | 27:01 | | Embracing hard – family stories and generational transfer of belief | 32:54 – 35:58 | | Re-entering after failure in leadership/cancel culture | 37:19 – 38:44 |

Memorable Quotes Compilation

• “Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, but this time more intelligently.” – Quoting Henry Ford [00:08]
• “If you want a return on your failure, keep failure and success together.” – John Maxwell [04:28]
• “It’s easier to go from failure to success than it is from excuses to success.” – John Maxwell [07:38]
• “We were made for hard in our family.” – Macy Cole (via Mark Cole) [35:54]
• “No one is discounted if you learn.” – Tracy Morrow [37:19]

Final Thoughts

The episode provides powerful language and practical methods for leaders and individuals who wish to transform the concept of failure from something to be avoided into a catalyst for personal and organizational growth. From redefining failure as simple “unmet expectations,” to embracing difficulty as a precondition to progress, John Maxwell and co-hosts provide a hopeful, actionable roadmap for leaders at every level.

For more resources and application questions, listeners are encouraged to visit maxwellpodcast.com/returnonfailure.