PHOTO COURTESY OF MAGNIFIC.COM

The master has failed more than the student has tried. If you haven’t failed, you haven’t tried. Failure is proof that you’re trying. Right?

This sentiment is repeated daily and looks stunning on a living room pillow; it’s something we’ve all heard a thousand times. Which begs the question: is it true? Is failure really proof of effort? I don’t believe so.

My first reason for this stance is simple: it takes no effort at all to fail. In fact, failure can be evidence of a lack of effort. Because of this, failure cannot be evidence that you tried.

Imagine it’s January 1 and I make a resolution. I’m going to wake up early and work out every single day. January 3, I hit snooze. January 5, I deleted the alarm. I put no effort into my goal and failed as a result. Failure exists here; effort does not.

The second reason is that effort without external success is invisible from the outside. For example, there are 13 million artist profiles on Spotify. Roughly 80% have fewer than 50 monthly listeners.

Does their lack of fame and success mean that these artists haven’t tried? Of course not. Many of them put all that they have into music, but haven’t seen results. Still, their accounts alone are not proof of effort either, because just as many artists have barely tried.

For another example, take two students: one who studies for weeks and another who doesn’t attend the class. Exam day rolls around, and both fail. The first student tried, but just looking at their attempt, you wouldn’t know that.

The truth is no one can tell who tried and who didn’t just from the attempt alone. You don’t see which artist wakes up and practices and which ones sleep in. You don’t see those who agonize over their lyrics and those who get them from AI. Their effort, or lack thereof, is invisible.

However, in both examples, you could tell who tried and who didn’t. The ones who tried are going to do way better; you can probably tell who is giving it their all and who is doing it for a bet by listening to one song. Even if both students fail, the one who studied probably got more right or at least learned something.

However, this reinforces my claim. Of course you can tell who tried and who didn’t. Those who didn’t try failed to make art that you care about, while those who did succeeded. The students who didn’t study failed to learn, while the student who did succeeded.

In the end, the phrase “failure is proof that you’re trying” only works when the absence of visible, external success means the absence of success altogether, and that is not true.

The only proof of effort is success, but success isn’t just the final goal, because you succeed every time you make progress. If you’ve given it your best effort, look for your successes, even the small ones. Because failing does not mean you tried.

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