The Failure Resume
Document your failures systematically to normalize risk and accelerate learning
Adam Grant maintains a three-page resume of his failures — rejected papers, declined proposals, bombed talks, and failed projects. The failure resume is not a self-flagellation exercise; it is a systematic practice for normalizing failure as a natural byproduct of ambitious effort. Most professionals curate only their successes, which creates a distorted self-image where every failure feels like an aberration rather than a normal part of growth. The failure resume corrects this distortion by making the full picture visible. When you can see your failures alongside your successes, several psychological shifts occur: failure becomes less threatening because it is familiar rather than exceptional, you begin to identify patterns in your failures that reveal systematic blind spots, and you develop a more accurate assessment of your risk tolerance by seeing how many failures you have already survived. The practice is especially powerful for high achievers who have been rewarded for perfection and have developed an unhealthy aversion to risk as a result. By documenting failures, you prove to yourself that failure is survivable and often instrumental to later success.
- A failure resume makes the full picture of your career visible, correcting the distortion of success-only narratives.
- Failure becomes less threatening when you can see how many failures you have already survived.
- Patterns in your failures reveal systematic blind spots that individual failures obscure.
- Documenting failures normalizes risk-taking and reduces the perfectionism that prevents ambitious effort.
- Create Your Failure Resume DocumentOpen a new document and title it 'Failure Resume.' Create sections for different domains of your life: career/professional, creative/intellectual, relationship/interpersonal, and personal/health. For each domain, list every significant failure, rejection, mistake, or setback you can remember. Include dates and brief descriptions. Do not editorialize or add silver linings — just document the failures as facts. The first draft will feel uncomfortable, which is the point. You are building a complete record that counterbalances your polished success narrative.Pro tipStart with your most recent failures and work backwards. Recent failures are easier to recall and the exercise builds momentum as you go deeper into your history.WarningThis exercise can surface genuine grief or regret. If you find yourself dwelling on a particular failure in a way that feels unhealthy, consider discussing it with a therapist or trusted friend before continuing.
- Analyze Failure PatternsReview your failure resume looking for patterns. Common patterns include: failures in specific domains (always failing at the same type of task), failures at specific stages (always failing during execution but not planning, or vice versa), failures related to specific blind spots (consistently underestimating timelines, overestimating market demand, or avoiding difficult conversations). These patterns are the actionable insights. Individual failures are noise; patterns across failures are signal. Document the top three patterns you identify.Pro tipHave a challenge network member review your failure resume for patterns you might miss — others often see patterns in our behavior that we cannot.
- Update Regularly and Share SelectivelyAdd new failures to your resume as they occur — ideally within a week of the failure while the details are fresh. Review the entire document quarterly to check whether identified patterns are improving or worsening. Share your failure resume selectively with trusted colleagues, mentees, or team members. Sharing failures creates psychological safety in teams and normalizes risk-taking. When a leader or respected peer shows their failures openly, it gives others permission to take risks without fear of being judged for inevitable setbacks.Pro tipWhen sharing with your team, pair each failure with what you learned or how it led to a later success. This demonstrates that failures are not endpoints but waypoints on the path to achievement.WarningBe thoughtful about context when sharing. A failure resume shared with a team that already has low morale may be demoralizing rather than liberating. Read the room.
Adam Grant, despite being Wharton's top-rated professor, a New York Times #1 bestselling author, and one of the world's most influential management thinkers, maintains a three-page failure resume. It includes rejected academic papers, failed teaching experiments, books that did not perform as expected, and speaking engagements that fell flat. He references this document regularly and shares it with students to demonstrate that a long list of failures is compatible with — and perhaps necessary for — extraordinary success.
Grant described this practice in his profile in Philadelphia Magazine and discussed it on The Tim Ferriss Show. He was inspired by the academic tradition of tracking publication rejections, but extended it to encompass all professional failures. The practice gained traction in academic circles when Princeton professor Johannes Haushofer published his own 'CV of Failures' in 2016, which went viral. Grant's version is more comprehensive, covering not just academic rejections but failed teaching moments, poor strategic decisions, and missed opportunities. He uses it as both a personal learning tool and a conversation starter with students at Wharton, where it helps normalize the reality that even the most successful professor at a top business school has a long list of failures.