Failing Forward

Growing up, failure was something you learned to avoid at all costs.

It was the grade that made you hide your report card. That audition that didn't go well. The relationship that ended badly. The business idea that never took off. Then, Failure meant you weren’t good enough, smart enough, worthy enough.

We are taught to avoid failure like it’s a final destination, something shameful, irreversible, even disqualifying. But what if we got it all wrong? What if, instead of the end, it is the pivot point, the wake-up call you needed, or even the beginning of something far more powerful?

What if your biggest setback is actually part of your story; the setup for the comeback nobody, not even you, saw coming.

The Price of Playing It Safe

Growing up as a Black woman, the stakes always felt higher. There was this unspoken understanding that you couldn’t afford to mess up, that there was no room for mistakes when you’re already fighting for space in rooms that question your right to be there.

So you learned to play it safe. To stay in the box others have carved for you. To choose the path of least resistance rather than the path of steepest learning curve.

And somewhere along the way, you robbed yourself of life’s most powerful teacher: the wisdom that only comes from falling down and finding the strength to get back up.

When Loss Becomes Leadership

Bozoma Saint John understands the weight of carrying on when everything inside you wants to collapse.

While climbing the corporate ladder and breaking barriers in spaces where women like her were rare, life delivered an unimaginable blow. Her husband, the love of her life, was dying of cancer. She faced becoming a single mother while trying to hold it together in high-pressure boardrooms where vulnerability was seen as weakness.

The world expected her to choose: Be the grieving widow or be the powerful executive. Be a devoted mother or be a career woman.

Bozoma refused to choose.

Instead of letting grief end her story, she let it rewrite it. She brought her whole self, pain and power, vulnerability and strength, into every room she entered. That authenticity, born from her deepest loss, became her greatest professional asset.

Today, she’s revolutionizing how we think about leadership. As former Chief Marketing Officer at Netflix and one of the most influential Black executives in America, she’s proof that our wounds can become our wisdom, our setbacks can become our strength.

Her message to women everywhere is, “Don’t compartmentalize your pain. Let it inform your power.” and that is a message we want to amplify. 

The Voice They Said Wasn’t Right

There was a time when Oprah Winfrey was told she was “unfit for TV.”

The woman whose voice would eventually reach millions, whose empathy would heal hearts across the globe, whose presence would command stages worldwide, was fired from her job as an evening news anchor because someone decided she wasn’t television material.

That rejection could have been the end. She could have believed them. She could have quietly found another path, accepted that media wasn’t for her, let someone else’s limited vision define her possibilities.

Instead, she took that “no” and turned it into the loudest “yes” the world has ever heard.

That firing led her to daytime television, where her authentic, conversational style, the very qualities that made her “unfit” for evening news, became revolutionary in the media industry. Her ability to connect, to make people feel seen and heard, built the household name we know worldwide today. 

The Oprah Winfrey Show. Harpo Productions. OWN Network. The first Black female billionaire in history.

All because she refused to let someone else’s narrow definition of success become hers.

The Sacred Art of Rising

Here’s what these women understood that many of us miss; ‘there is sacred power in the rising.’

Not because suffering is beautiful, it’s not. But because of what can emerge from the ashes when we refuse to let our setbacks have the final word.

Every rejection teaches us to keep forging forward. Every loss we experience shows us what we’re truly made of. Every failure becomes knowledge, information we can use to pivot, to grow, to try again with more wisdom than we had before.

The breakdown isn’t your end point. It’s your breaking point, the place where you break open to possibilities you never knew existed.

Writing New Definitions

So let’s redefine failure together, right here, right now. Let’s unlearn what we thought it was.

Read these aloud to yourself;

Failure isn’t falling down. Failure is staying down.

It’s not about the mistakes I’ve made, it’s about the moments I let fear stop me from even trying.

It’s not the setbacks that define me, it’s when I start to believe that I don’t deserve a comeback.

Your greatest failures might just be your greatest teachers in disguise. The job you didn’t get that led you to the one you were meant for. The relationship that ended and taught you what love really looks like. The business that failed and gave you the experience to build something better.

Your Story Continues

Right now, you might be in the middle of what feels like failure. Maybe you’re dealing with loss, rejection, disappointment. Maybe you’re questioning everything, your choices, your dreams, your worth.

I need you to know: this isn’t your end. This is your beginning.

Your comeback doesn’t start when you have all the answers, all the resources, all the confidence. It starts when you decide to get up one more time than you’ve been knocked down.

It starts when you choose to see your setbacks as setups for something greater than you’ve yet imagined.

The Strength of Sisterhood

And listen, Sister, you don’t have to navigate this journey alone. In Sister’s Circle, we understand that failure isn’t the opposite of success, it’s part of the path to it.

We’re here to remind you that your setbacks DO NOT define you. That your comeback story is still being written.

Because sometimes, you need women who’ve walked through their own fires to remind you that you have everything you need to rise from yours.

Your story isn’t over. In fact, your best chapters might be the ones you’re about to write, the ones that start with “Despite everything that tried to break me, I chose to break through instead.”

Connect with Black Women like you. Join the Sister’s Circle waitlist today