What if the very thing you’ve been avoiding your entire life… is actually the key to unlocking your greatest success?

In this conversation with John Maxwell, we go deep on something every single one of you deals with, but almost nobody has mastered: failure. And I’ve got to tell you, this one hit me personally. John has been a mentor, a friend, and someone I look up to in a way that’s hard to even put into words. So when we sat down to talk about his new work on failure, I knew this wasn’t going to be surface-level. This is the real stuff that defines your life.

John breaks down why most people never even get in the game. It’s not a lack of talent. It’s not a lack of opportunity. It’s that they haven’t gotten over themselves. That fear of looking bad, of being judged, of failing publicly… it keeps people stuck in the bleachers. And one of the most powerful distinctions we talk about is this idea of a “good miss” versus a “bad miss.” Because failure itself isn’t what defines you, your response to it is. That alone could change your entire life if you really take it in.

We also unpack something I’ve never heard explained this way before. Success and failure are meant to be together. You separate them, and you lose. When you’re winning, failure keeps you humble. When you’re struggling, success gives you resilience. That balance is where growth actually happens. And John shares how reframing failure from a liability into an asset completely transformed not just his career, but his entire perspective on life.

This episode is also about leadership. About how you lead your family, your team, and yourself through setbacks. John made it clear that when successful people talk about their failures, it gives everyone else permission to keep going. It encourages people. It lifts them. And I had to check myself in this conversation too, because the truth is, when we only show our wins, we might actually be discouraging the very people we’re trying to help.

If you’ve been holding back, playing it safe, or letting the fear of failure control your decisions...this is the episode you need right now. This isn’t just about failure. It’s about freedom.

Key Takeaways:

• Why fear of failure is really about ego and how to break free from it
• The difference between a “good miss” and a “bad miss” and why your response matters most
• How keeping success and failure together builds both humility and resilience
• Why failure should move you, not define you or make you comfortable
• How great leaders use their failures to inspire and develop others
• The mindset shift that turns failure from a liability into your greatest asset