If kids've been overprotected from failure in childhood, they get out into the world and they really get thrown off.

If kids've been overprotected from failure in childhood, they get out into the world and they really get thrown off.

What if the Secret to Success is Failure?.

People high in conscientiousness get better grades in high school and college; they commit fewer crimes; and they stay married longer.

If we don't give kids the opportunity to fail when they're growing up, and to fail productively, to fail creatively, that they're going to get out there into the world and they're going to hit some kind of setback, like everybody does, and they're going to get completely derailed.

Optimists, by contrast, look for specific, limited, short-term explanations for bad events, and as a result, in the face of a setback, they’re more likely to pick themselves up and try again.

And in most highly academic environments in the United States, no one fails anything.