Turning spare moments into real growth
This week didn’t go to plan. For the first time since starting my side hustle mission, I failed to hit my £10 survey target. By Friday, I’d only reached £5, and when the weekend rolled around, I decided to take a break. Then the Amazon internet outage hit, knocking out my survey app entirely.
It’s not exactly a crisis, but I’ll admit — I felt a sting. I can be sensitive to failure.
At the same time, I’m also in the thick of my postgraduate leadership course, and that hasn’t gone smoothly either. I recently failed an assignment, probably for the first time ever. Between two essays, work pressures, and life in general, something had to give. I tried to shrug it off, requested an extension on my other paper, and gave myself permission to slow down. Still, when results day came around again, the anxiety crept back.
Come results day I couldn’t even bring myself to open the results page. I checked my emails first — no “You’ve failed” message. Relief. That was enough for me. Sometimes, “no bad news” is good news.
But here’s what I’ve realised in my time: failure is not the opposite of success. It’s part of it.
We learn far more from the times things don’t go right. The moments when a plate we’ve been spinning finally drops. They force us to pause, reflect, and adjust. I’ve seen it in others too — people who’ve flown through life, promotion after promotion, until one day they don’t get it. It shakes them because their identity is built entirely on success.
How many times does an athlete fail before they take home the gold? Thousands, probably. They only reach precision through repetition, frustration, and relentless adjustment.
I remember failing my maths homework back in school. I’d always been top of the class until suddenly, I wasn’t. My teacher used an example I’ll never forget — David Beckham’s famous corner kicks. “Do you think he was always that good?” he asked. Of course not. Beckham practised until he could place the ball perfectly every time. That failure, he told me, was the moment my real learning began.
That lesson has stuck with me. The first time you fail at something is the moment you start growing.
Have you ever felt imposter syndrome — that creeping sense that you don’t belong, that someone’s going to “find you out”? Most of us have. But that discomfort is actually proof that you’re stretching yourself. It’s courage disguised as fear.
Failure hurts, yes — but it’s a sign that you’re trying. And the more you try, the better you get.
So this week, I didn’t hit my £10. Big deal. I’ll hit it next time, or I won’t — but I’ll still move forward. Because success isn’t about never dropping a ball. It’s about learning to pick it back up faster each time.
🧾 Sidequest Stats
Survey Goal: £10
Actual: £5 (thanks, Amazon outage!)
Lesson Learned: Failure = growth — the most valuable return of all
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