"Never walk away from failure. On the contrary, study it carefully and imaginatively for its hidden assets"
About this Quote
Failure, for Korda, is less a verdict than raw material. The first sentence sounds like a stern bit of locker-room grit, but the real move is rhetorical: he flips the usual self-help reflex of “leave the negativity behind” into a command to stay put. “Never walk away” isn’t about stoicism for its own sake; it’s about refusing the comforting story that a stumble is a detour. He’s insisting it’s the road.
Then comes the pivot that reveals the novelist’s mind at work: “study it carefully and imaginatively.” Careful suggests discipline, almost forensic attention to what actually happened, not what we wish happened. Imaginatively is the more interesting tell. He’s not asking for simple lessons (“don’t do that again”) but for a creative rereading - a way of turning embarrassment into insight, error into plot. That word yokes analysis to invention, as if the point of failure isn’t just correction but transformation.
“Hidden assets” is the subtextual payoff. Failure becomes a kind of encrypted capital: reputational bruises that teach timing, rejected drafts that clarify voice, blown opportunities that expose what you didn’t want enough. The phrase also has a faintly businesslike tang, fitting Korda’s long proximity to publishing and power: careers are built by people who can metabolize losses into leverage.
The intent, finally, is anti-romantic and oddly hopeful: not “everything happens for a reason,” but “you can make reasons out of what happened” - if you stay close enough to the wreckage to read its useful details.
Then comes the pivot that reveals the novelist’s mind at work: “study it carefully and imaginatively.” Careful suggests discipline, almost forensic attention to what actually happened, not what we wish happened. Imaginatively is the more interesting tell. He’s not asking for simple lessons (“don’t do that again”) but for a creative rereading - a way of turning embarrassment into insight, error into plot. That word yokes analysis to invention, as if the point of failure isn’t just correction but transformation.
“Hidden assets” is the subtextual payoff. Failure becomes a kind of encrypted capital: reputational bruises that teach timing, rejected drafts that clarify voice, blown opportunities that expose what you didn’t want enough. The phrase also has a faintly businesslike tang, fitting Korda’s long proximity to publishing and power: careers are built by people who can metabolize losses into leverage.
The intent, finally, is anti-romantic and oddly hopeful: not “everything happens for a reason,” but “you can make reasons out of what happened” - if you stay close enough to the wreckage to read its useful details.
Quote Details
| Topic | Learning from Mistakes |
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