How To Benefit From Your Failures
Welcome to One Thing Better. Each week, Jason Feifer, the editor in chief of Entrepreneur magazine (that’s me) shares one way to achieve a breakthrough at work — and build a career or company you love.
Today's 8 26 2026 edition is sponsored by Salesforce, the best solution to help small businesses scale.
Something went wrong for you. It feels awful.
But wait! Before you spiral, ask yourself this question:
"Did I just run an accidental experiment?"
The question is a surprisingly helpful reframe, because it turns your terrible feeling into a result worth studying. Suddenly, you’re back in control. Your failure becomes useful. And it might even look like a success.
Today, I’ll show you how it works. But first, here’s the moment I learned this question — after suffering my own big mistake.
Where it all went wrong
Last year, I organized an online workshop with my friend Richelle DeVoe. She’s a master of consumer insights research, and I was really excited for her presentation.
Dozens of people attended. They were engaged. Then, disaster — our Zoom room abruptly closed after 40 minutes, cutting off the workshop.
I panicked. Then I did the only thing I could think of: I clicked the original Zoom link and re-entered the room. To my relief, so did 90% of the group. Richelle was able to continue.
Afterward, I figured out what happened: My credit card had expired, so my Zoom account quietly reverted to the free plan — which includes a 40-minute meeting cap. That’s why the room abruptly closed.
I called Richelle to apologize. I felt bad that I'd messed things up. But she saw things differently:
"It was like an accidental experiment," Richelle happily told me. "When the call got cut off, you got to see how many people were truly engaged and willing to come back. And almost all of them did. That's very high retention."
I laughed, because she was right. And then I thought: What a brilliant way to think about a mistake!
The genius of an accidental experiment
Here's the idea: When something goes wrong, you feel like all was lost.
But that's not true! Something was gained! You just ran a test that you wouldn’t have run on purpose — and now you get to see (and learn from) the results.
For example: Say I wanted to measure the engagement levels of my workshops. How would I do that? Well...
~ I could track how long people stay in the room… but they might be bored, half-listening, and checking email. So “length of stay” is not a good metric.
~ I could survey them afterward… but surveys are tedious, and people don't always answer honestly. That’s not a good metric either.
~ Or, I could literally cut the call off in the middle and see who comes back! But I’d never actually do that—
Whoops. It just happened. And I got to see the result!
Some of the best discoveries are made this way. For example: We don't harm people just to study how to heal them. But when harm happens on its own, we learn things we couldn't have learned otherwise.
So when things go wrong in our lives, isn’t that an opportunity to learn something too?
Experiments are all around you
So much can go wrong: efforts fail, relationships fracture, time gets wasted, egos are bruised. In each case, it's worth asking two questions:
1. If this was an experiment, what was being tested?
2. What do the results reveal?
Something is always being tested. Some result is always waiting to be found. Consider:
~ You miss a meeting, and your team runs it perfectly without you. Result: They're more capable than you realized, which means you can step back more.
~ You accidentally price something too high, and people buy anyway. Result: You just discovered a new pricing tier.
~ You give a talk on stage, something goes wrong, and you improvise a recovery. Result: The audience is even more engaged, and you learn a new thing to do on stage!
That last one is a personal story. Here’s what happened:
For many years, I'd start my keynote talk the same way: I'd teach people to develop a “personal mission statement" that makes them more adaptable.
After I taught this concept, I'd ask for volunteers in the crowd: Who's willing to share their statement with everyone? When people raised their hands, I had a designated mic runner move through the audience with a microphone.
But about a year ago, the mic runner wasn’t there when I needed them. Ack! So I improvised. I grabbed a mic myself, ran out into the crowd, and started interacting with people directly.
And the result was MAGIC. The room felt different. Special. Personal. It became a dialog with the audience. People applauded. Listened close. Leaned in. Sometimes someone would get teary-eyed sharing something, and we’d hug.
Now I do this every time. People tell me it’s the most memorable part of my talk. And it’s my favorite part.
But really, this began as an accidental experiment. Something went wrong, I had to do things differently. And the results made me better.
This is about control
When things go wrong, we feel a loss of control. It seems like there’s nothing we can do anymore. We’re at the mercy of fate. It’s out of our hands.
But the accidental experiment concept is about regaining control. It gives us a way to evaluate and use these seemingly uncontrollable situations. That’s why it’s so soothing. It means we’re still in the game.
Of course, not every result is tidy or obviously beneficial. Sometimes, things go wrong and you lose something. But even then, the "accidental experiment" frame gives you a useful data point:
· You hesitate and lose an opportunity. Now you know your decision-making speed — and how to move faster next time.
· A trusted business partner abruptly quits. Result: You learn a lot about who to partner with, and what it takes to foster the right relationships.
· A major product launch bombs. Result: You get instant proof of what the market wants, helping to guide you towards a better product.
Each is a hypothesis you didn't mean to test, followed by a result you weren't expecting — which might be the most useful lesson available to you right now.
So the next time something breaks, don't just ask what went wrong. Ask what you just learned that you wouldn't have learned any other way.
Then act on the results.
That's how to do one thing better.
Written by and on Jason Feifer’s Entrepreneur Magazine newsletter.
I subscribe and almost read every one of them, looking for insights I can use and share.
I suggest you subscribe too.
Shared by Dave Savage – Founder and facilitator of the InventorsEducationForum.org
Sign up here and read many of his past articles. https://www.jasonfeifer.com/newsletter/