To ask what’s been your biggest failure in life, and what (if anything) you learned from it?

@Coolbreezee

Wonderful insightful post and true .

What was yours OP?

Messed up my education because my mother told me the teacher said I was " Bumping at the bottom of the class " which I found out later was a lie . I was actually one of the more capable pupils and my teacher was horrified when I told her after bumping into her after leaving school. My brother also told me than Cse qualifications were not worth the paper they were written on . I just gave up due to low self esteem. I have learnt not to take what others say as the gospel and question everything .

Lovely post

Getting married. Twice.
I would have been so much better off in every way if I had stuck to making my own decisions and not listened to men.

You first

I turned down medical school after receiving four offers because during work experience I kept fainting at the smell of blood and realised it wasn't the career for me (it's the smell of blood in an unventilated room that gets me every time!).

Instead I joined the military. I was then diagnosed with a health condition that meant after 3 years I was forced to leave.

I had no idea what to do with my life, I lost my job, home and friends pretty much over night. I tried various jobs but nothing felt as good. I spent most of my 20s travelling.

Next failure was at uni. I began a degree as a mature student and fell pregnant in my second year. Decided to leave and am now studying a completely different degree whilst on maternity leave and finally feel like I'm on track with my education and career (it's taken the good part of a decade to get started!)

Another mistake, lending money to friends. I lost thousands of pounds and my best friend because of it.

What did I learn?

• there is always more than one way to get from A to B. If one way isn't working for you take a look at the different options and don't be afraid to walk a less beaten path.
• there's no such thing as too late.
• don't lend money
• always have an emergency fund@@
• you can't always change what happens to you in life but you can always choose how you respond to it.
• remember you can choose how much of yourself to give away and how much of others to let in. Don't overshare and don't take on other people's problems if it's@@ too much for you to handle
• be a decent person, respect yourself, treat others with kindness and respect, stick to your principles even @ForFlakySloth when the going is tough and good comes around.

What's yours?

My ex boyfriend who I met at 16. If I could my 16 year old self a talking to I would say " IF HE I S A CONTROLLING, ABUSIVE NARCASIST YOU CAN JUST LEAVE RATHER THAN STAY FOR 6 YEARS AND LET HIM RUIN YOU!"

I suppose I’m substituting failure for regret but for me it was not looking more for a direction career wise- I’ve a degree in biotechnology but have hopped so much job wise (lab, admin, retain, totally different lab work) that I think I pretty much look unemployable - I didn’t go into working with animals because of pay but I think I’d have continued steadily on instead of jumping jobs

The other is spending more time with my family so my kids knew them better- they think of his family as family and mine barely acquaintances

Oh god, where to start!
I trained to be a primary school teacher and quit after one term. And it wasn't just because I didn't like it, I was not good at it.
I still don't know what I want to do with my life and that was 16 years ago.

If you are interested in this question, you should listen to Elizabeth Day's Podcast 'How to Fail' where she interviews famous people about their failures.