No one likes failing If we seem to be fetishizing failure, it is only to push back against the fetishizing of success that has developed here. I think we have

No one likes failing If we seem to be fetishizing failure, it is only to push back against the fetishizing of success that has developed here. I think we have a tyranny of being afraid to fail in America. Our culture of meritocracy and achievement has made most of us hypervigilant about avoiding failure, to the point of being neurotic. Fear of failure only hurts us collectively because it means we take fewer risks. Fewer risks => less innovation, less diversity in the marketplace. Fear of failure hurts all of us. If being labelled a failure can destroy your career, it's not really helpful to further stigmatize failure by saying it's a "fetish", right? You're just making failure into an even worse word.