Fail-osophy: The Hidden Power of Effing Up
Success is a zigzagging web of tries, not a ladder — so make ten things, not the same thing ten times.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~ongoing to results
- Steps
- 3
- Confidence
- 85%
Drawn from the Try Guys' book The Hidden Power of Effing Up, Fulmer's fail-osophy reframes failure as the engine of success rather than its opposite. He rejects the tidy hindsight narrative of a perfect career path, noting how many of his own moves were dead ends. Because digital media has such a low barrier to entry, the smart move is to publish many different attempts — if people don't like something, nobody sees it, and the things they do like put you on the map. He invokes the writing paradigm of rewriting the same opus ten times versus writing ten different movies, arguing the latter builds more skill and raises the odds of a hit. He extends it to podcasters: if a show hasn't gained traction in a year or two, change the marketing, branding, angle, frequency, or format, or start something new.
Origin
A severe knee injury in Chicago in 2013 forced Fulmer off his stable chem-lab job and improv circuit, jolting him into the bold risk of moving to LA — a break that showed him how fear of disrupting a comfortable status quo can trap you.
Core principles
- 01Fear of failure paralyzes people into inaction and indecision.
- 02Careers are a zigzagging spider web of choices, not a straight ladder to success.
- 03Every attempt builds experience and a better understanding of your own skills.
- 04Making ten different things beats rewriting the same one ten times.
- 05Don't stay on a failing project too long — change it or start something new.
How to run it
- 1
Reframe failure as the path
Accept that careers are a zigzagging web of dead ends and mistakes, not a straight ladder, so fear of messing up should not limit your experiences.
Watch out Being afraid of messing up will severely limit the experiences you have and the things you can do.
- 2
Make ten things, not one thing ten times
Publish many different attempts rather than endlessly polishing a single project, since each try builds skill and one of the ten is likely to land.
Pro tip Digital media's low barrier to entry means you can film on your phone and publish freely — if people don't like it, nobody sees it, so who cares.
- 3
Evolve or start over when there's no traction
If a project hasn't gained traction in a year or two, change the marketing, branding, angle, frequency, or format — or stop it and start something new.
Pro tip Think about your podcast the way creators think about TikToks — be willing to iterate and move on fast.
Watch out Don't keep doing the exact same thing for five years expecting to suddenly blow up.
In the wild
Fulmer had a stable chem-lab day job and a full improv and sketch schedule in Chicago when a bad knee injury forced him onto disability leave and off his shows.
→ The break made him reassess and take the scary risk of moving to LA, accelerating the timeline that led to BuzzFeed and the Try Guys.
The host recounts that Young and Profiting was her sixth show after years in radio and online music shows, evolving formats rather than quitting after early failures.
→ YAP became her most successful show, letting her interview world-famous creators — which never would have happened if she'd quit broadcasting.
Common mistakes
Rewriting the same opus
Endlessly polishing one project instead of making many different ones stalls skill growth and lowers the odds of ever producing a hit.
Staying on a stalled project too long
Running the same unchanged show for years with no traction, expecting to eventually blow up, wastes time that a new attempt could use.
Is it for you?
Best for
Aspiring creators and career-changers held back by perfectionism or fear of risk.
Not ideal for
People in genuinely high-stakes, irreversible-decision contexts where rapid failure is costly.
From the transcript
“there's going to be like a zigzagging spider web of career choices and decisions”
“what if they spent that time writing 10 different movies and all of them are you know not great but maybe the 10th one is…”
“you can just start publishing things if people don't like it nobody will see it so who cares”
From the episode
Ned Fulmer: How to Go Viral on YouTube
Ned Fulmer