Failure Notes
Record and celebrate failures as evidence of useful iteration
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 98%
Failure Notes reverses the reward system that keeps perfectionists stuck. Instead of recording only wins, write down meaningful failures as they happen and deliberately celebrate them. Each entry captures the attempt, what failed, what the experience taught you, and what you will change next. The celebration is not approval of avoidable harm or poor standards; it rewards taking a real shot and acquiring information that planning alone could not produce. Over time, the journal makes failed attempts visible as steps in an improvement process rather than isolated evidence that you should stop. That shift lowers the emotional cost of beginning before everything is perfect, encourages faster feedback, and turns mistakes into an accumulating body of practical instruction.
Origin
David Nurse recalls Failure Notes as his tool for the perfectionist action archetype after discussing how successful businesses endured major roadblocks before improving.
Core principles
- 01Failure is necessary feedback rather than proof of inadequacy
- 02Celebrating attempts reduces perfectionism's control
- 03Repeated iteration produces improvement
How to run it
- 1
Capture the attempt
Write down a meaningful attempt that did not produce the intended result.
Pro tip Record it while the details are still fresh.
- 2
Describe the failure
State what happened and where the attempt diverged from the intended outcome.
Pro tip Use observable facts rather than self-judgment.
Watch out Do not celebrate preventable harm or evade responsibility.
- 3
Extract the lesson
Identify what the failure revealed that you could not have learned by waiting for perfection.
Pro tip Convert the lesson into a testable change.
- 4
Celebrate the evidence
Acknowledge that taking the attempt created useful information and momentum.
Pro tip Celebrate the courage and learning, not the bad result itself.
- 5
Run the next iteration
Choose and execute the next adjusted attempt.
Pro tip Review earlier notes to avoid repeating the same unexamined mistake.
In the wild
A founder launches a simple offer and gets no sales. Instead of hiding the result, they log the attempt, note that prospects did not understand the promised outcome, celebrate that the launch exposed the messaging gap, and test a clearer problem statement with five customers.
→ Failure becomes specific feedback for the next iteration rather than a reason to stop.
Common mistakes
Celebrating without learning
Every note needs a lesson and next adjustment or the ritual becomes empty positivity.
Confusing failure with negligence
The framework rewards responsible experimentation, not avoidable recklessness or repeated carelessness.
Is it for you?
Best for
Builders, creators, and performers who delay action because they fear getting it wrong.
Not ideal for
High-stakes failures where accountability, remediation, or safety investigation must come first.
From the transcript
“So you're literally anytime you fail, you're writing it down in your journal and you're celebrating the opposite. You're celebrating the failures.”
“And those failures ultimately are going to lead you to having it the the way it's supposed to be or that you're actually able to…”
From the episode
Episode 229: David Nurse: How to Identify Your Action Archetypes
David Nurse