Learn Faster by Failing Faster

If you’re not failing during training and while learning new skillsets and concepts, you’re not pushing your boundaries, not venturing out of your comfort zone, and consequently, you’re not learning as well as you can be.

It’s through this lens that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has adapted its training programs, where failure is viewed not as a defeat but as a step towards success. From the covert operative’s perspective, the concept of “failing faster” might sound counterintuitive, even dangerous.

We’ve been conditioned to associate failure with a stigma, a sign of weakness, or even an endpoint. However, it’s vital to understand that failure in this context does not imply a catastrophic breakdown or an irreparable mistake. It’s about iterative learning, about making smaller mistakes in controlled environments, and promptly learning from them to enhance our skillset and decision-making abilities.

It’s easier and generally better to do something right the first time than to go back and fix a mistake, but failure isn’t always avoidable and sometimes a mistake can’t be fixed. Thus, the best thing to do is to learn from it and continue on.

          Failing isn’t a Choice, Learning From it is

Much like fieldwork, where a mistake could have substantial ramifications, learning a new skill is fraught with challenges. In the early stages of acquisition, failing is a natural occurrence. Here’s where the power of failing faster comes into play. The quicker you acknowledge the shortcomings, the sooner you can identify and correct the errors, and the faster you will improve.

Similarly, in everyday life, it’s not the absence of mistakes but the efficiency and speed at which we learn from them that dictates the rate of our personal and professional growth. This brings us to the central premise of this intel: to learn faster, we need to fail faster.

One might argue that failure is to be avoided, viewed as a setback, a demoralizing event that could impede our progress. However, it’s high time we refocus our lenses and see failure not as a pitfall, but as an integral part of the learning process, the stepping stone to mastering new skills or learning something new.

“Failure isn’t an option, but sometimes it’s not an option we have control over.”

To put it in perspective, let’s consider a toddler learning to walk. A toddler doesn’t think about the number of times they fall but instead instinctively gets back up each time. With every fall, they gain an understanding of balance, movement, and coordination until they can walk, run, and even hop.

An operative in the field experiences the same cycle. Their training involves failing repeatedly until they succeed in learning the necessary skills and adapted experience for survival and capability. There is no room for delusions, for pretending they haven’t failed. It’s about acknowledging failure, understanding why it happened, and quickly adapting the learning into action.

To ‘fail faster’ is to embrace the process of trial and error, to step out of the comfort zone, and to expose oneself to the possibility of failure. When we give ourselves permission to fail, we open ourselves up to faster learning. We develop resilience, adaptability, and a deeper understanding of our capabilities. We also gain a profound appreciation of the process and journey of learning.

          The Method of Failing Faster to Learn Faster

Step 1)     Embrace Failure

Step 2)     Fail Safely

Step 3)     Act Swiftly

Step 4)     Learn From Failure

Step 5)     Iterate Quickly

Step 6)     Cultivate Resilience

It’s important to note that failing faster doesn’t mean being reckless or intentionally seeking failure. Rather, it’s about being comfortable with the idea that failure is a part of the journey to success, and embracing it can lead to accelerated learning. With the ultimate goal of failing less when it matters.

In the covert world of espionage and in the open world of personal growth, failing faster helps us learn faster. So the next time you fail, remember that it’s not an end but a start — a start to learning, improving, and becoming more proficient. Embrace failure, learn from it, and continue to grow.

Failure isn’t a sign of weakness but a testament to your courage to strive for progress and improvement. In the grand game of life, those who dare to fail are the ones who rise the highest and become most resistant to failure.