A causal relationship between failure and future success

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Scientists at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management have established a causal relationship between failure and future success. Researchers found that failure early in one's career leads to greater success in the long term for those who try again, those who stick it out, on average, perform much better in the long term, suggesting that if it doesn't kill you, it really does make you stronger, thus proving right the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche's adage that 'what does not kill me makes me stronger.'

The study, captioned 'Early-career setback and future career impact,' was published in Nature Communications.

Lead author Yang Wang said, 'The attrition rate does increase for those who fail early in their careers. But those who stick it out, on average, perform much better in the long term, suggesting that if it doesn't kill you, it does make you stronger.'

Dashun Wang, corresponding author and associate professor of management and organizations at Kellogg said, 'There is value in failure. We have just begun expanding this research into a broader domain and are seeing promising signals of similar effects in other fields.'