Many people talk about how useful failure is but don’t explain how or why. The author did a great job of articulating it in a way that makes the most sense to me of anything I’ve ever heard. Imagine you’re in military bootcamp, struggling to survive the rigorous physical and mental demands. 

During a particularly gruesome exercise, you come in last place amongst your peers, and you’re punished with extra hours of grueling exercise after everyone else is finished. In the beginning, it is the most difficult and painful punishment you can imagine, and you’re exhausted. Most people would quit because of the pain that this failure brought.

However - you are determined not to quit. In the beginning you are barely able to survive both the normal training plus your extra punishment. But as you progress, and don’t give up, you start to get stronger. What at first seemed punishment is now turning out to be the extra push you needed to take yourself to the next level.

Over time, because you’re working harder than your peers, you start to progress faster than them, and in the end, you not only catch up to their performance, but far surpass it. The failure lead to the punishment which forced you to grow more rapidly or quit, and since you didn’t quit you were able to succeed over those who never had to deal with the punishment of failure. So failure isn’t where the opportunity is - but the personal growth and fortitude required to handle the punishment is.

This idea came from Make Your Bed by Admiral William H. McRaven.

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