Failing It Up was never created to celebrate success stories.
It exists to honor a different kind of leadership — one shaped not by uninterrupted wins, polished narratives, or linear growth, but by failure that transformed the person who lived through it.
This initiative does not focus on leaders who simply “made it.”
It focuses on leaders who were changed.
There is an important distinction.
Many leaders are admired for their outcomes.
Failing It Up pays attention to what happened before the outcome, and often outside public view — the moments of breakdown, pause, loss, and reckoning that quietly reshaped how a person leads, decides, and lives.
Failure, in this context, is not a flaw or a mistake to correct.
It is a transformational force.
Leadership Is Not Proven by Success Alone
Conventional leadership narratives reward momentum, certainty, and consistency. They prioritize achievement and visibility, often overlooking the internal shifts that make leadership sustainable, ethical, and grounded.
But real leadership rarely emerges untouched.
Those who lead with depth have usually been interrupted — by failure, by collapse, by a moment when what once worked no longer did. They have been forced to re-evaluate not just what they do, but who they are while doing it.
Failing It Up recognizes that these interruptions are not detours from leadership.
They are often its foundation.
The Leaders This Initiative Honors
Failing It Up does not celebrate leaders because they are influential.
It celebrates them because they are transformed.
These are leaders who:
- have faced personal or professional failure without bypassing it
- allowed breakdowns to challenge their identity, not just their strategy
- chose reflection over reaction
- rebuilt from discernment, not desperation
- lead differently because they were once undone
Their authority does not come from perfection.
It comes from having been changed by experience.
This kind of leadership cannot be manufactured. It cannot be taught quickly. And it cannot be reduced to advice or frameworks.
It is lived.
Failure as a Leadership Threshold
In many cases, failure becomes the moment where leadership deepens.
Not because it is inspirational, but because it strips away false confidence and forces honesty. It reveals limits. It clarifies values. It reorders priorities.
Leaders who have been transformed through failure tend to lead with:
- greater restraint
- clearer boundaries
- deeper listening
- stronger ethical awareness
- less need for performance
They understand the cost of decisions because they have paid it before.
Failing It Up exists to create space for these stories — not to dramatize them, but to acknowledge their role in shaping real leadership.
Why These Stories Matter Now
We live in a time where leadership is often conflated with visibility, speed, and certainty. But the challenges of this era demand something different.
They demand leaders who:
- are comfortable with complexity
- can sit with uncertainty
- understand consequence
- and lead without needing constant validation
These qualities are rarely formed through success alone.
They are formed through failure that was not avoided, rushed, or disguised.
Failing It Up® brings attention back to this truth.
What This Initiative Is — and Is Not
Failing It Up is not a motivational platform.
It is not a success showcase.
It is not a collection of redemption arcs.
It is a storytelling initiative that honors transformation — the kind that happens when failure is met with reflection, responsibility, and time.
The leaders featured here are not defined by what they overcame, but by how they were changed by it.
And that change is what makes their leadership worth listening to.
Closing Note
Failing It Up celebrates leadership that has been tested, interrupted, and reshaped. Leadership that does not pretend failure was optional — but recognizes it as formative.
Because the leaders who lead with the most integrity are often those who were willing to let failure transform them first.
