Why your "failures" are your greatest advantage

TL;DR

• Random jobs and failed projects aren’t wasted time
• Every experience adds context that accumulates
• When the right opportunity arrives, the field is already plowed
• Starting “late” with 10-15 years of context is an advantage, not a handicap

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There’s a book by Álex Rovira called The Good Luck (affiliate link). The central idea: luck isn’t found, it’s created. By plowing the field for years so that when the seed falls, it grows.

I’ve been thinking about this for a long time. Because my career path makes no sense on paper.

The CV that doesn’t fit

I’ve had jobs that have nothing to do with each other. Jobs I quit. Projects that failed. Years where I seemed to make no progress.

And yet, now it all fits together.

Every “useless” job taught me something I use today:

• Customer-facing jobs taught me how to deal with difficult clients
• Technical jobs taught me I can learn anything by reading documentation
• Management jobs taught me how to handle pressure and prioritize
• Sales jobs taught me I can sell even though it’s hard for me
• Failed side projects taught me what DOESN’T work

None was wasted time. All were plowing the field.

Context is everything

When I started studying data formally, the concepts sounded familiar. Not because I was smarter, but because I had already lived them in another form.

The professor explained theory, I thought “I lived this in another context”.

That’s accumulated context. And it can’t be bought or accelerated. It’s only gained with years.

The myth of the young genius

We’re sold the idea of the 22-year-old genius who creates a startup and becomes a millionaire.

Reality: most business successes are created by people in their 40s-50s. With context. With accumulated failures. With a network built over decades.

The 22-year-old genius is the exception that proves the rule. And they usually have parents with connections, money, or both.

For the rest of us, the path is longer. But no less valid.

What this means for you

If you’re 25 and feel like you haven’t achieved anything: normal. You’re plowing.

If you’re 35 and feel like you’re starting late: it’s not late. You have 10-15 years of context that a 22-year-old doesn’t have.

If you’re 45 and think your moment has passed: your field is more plowed than anyone’s. You just need the right seed.

Success isn’t linear. It’s not predictable. And it rarely arrives when you expect it.

But it arrives. If you keep plowing.

The right seed

The problem usually isn’t the field. The problem is finding the seed that fits what you’ve plowed.

If you’ve spent years in “random” jobs, ask yourself:

• What do they have in common?
• What skills have I developed without realizing it?
• What problems do I know how to solve that others don’t?

The intersection of your “useless” experiences is probably your unique competitive advantage.

You just have to find it.

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Sound familiar? If you work with data and want to take the next step, write to me.