A Man May Fail Many Times

A Man May Fail Many Times Graphic © motivationpowerboost.com

“A man may fail many times,
but he isn’t a failure
until he begins to blame others”
— John Burroughs

Aim Higher Than the Blame Game: Why Accountable Men Achieve More

We’ve all experienced that gut-punch of failure at some point—dropped the ball on an important project, blown a critical opportunity, or definitively fallen short of our own lofty expectations. In those disappointing moments, the knee-jerk reaction is often to search for a scapegoat to shift the blame.

But as naturalist John Burroughs insightfully stated, “A man may fail many times, but he isn’t a failure until he begins to blame others.”

This quote cuts straight through the ego’s desperate attempts to rationalize underachievement and reassign responsibility. Because in Burroughs’ eyes, those who habitually deflect accountability for their missteps are setting themselves up for perpetual failure to reach their immense potential.

After all, as soon as you start finger-pointing and making excuses to absolve yourself, you surrender the power to improve and evolve from that failure. You cede control over your ability to overcome adversity. You let yourself off the hook from doing the hard work of introspection about what went wrong and how to raise your level of performance going forward.

Simply put, playing the blame game is a tragic waste of failure’s incredible lessons. Rather than having a victim mentality, Burroughs declares real men view each “failure” as a data point—an opportunity to gain wisdom, reframe their mindset, and upgrade their approach. It’s this mentality of radical accountability that ultimately separates those who remain stuck in a cycle of underachievement vs. those able to rebound from setbacks better and more formidably each time.

Here are some key reasons why accountable men achieve more than those in denial about their roles in their missteps:

They don’t make the same mistake twice.
Failures provide priceless insights about blind spots, knowledge gaps, or flaws in strategy that need correcting. When you shirk responsibility, you disregard those learnings and repeat the same errors ad nauseam. Those who hold themselves diligently accountable implement changes to avoid a similar outcome next time.

They retain prevailing self-belief.
If external circumstances are always responsible for your failures, you eventually lose self-confidence in your capacity to succeed through your own efforts. Taking ownership allows you to preserve an empowering belief in your ability to win through better choices and execution.

They deepen self-awareness.
People who blame others never have to look inward at how their actions, approach, or mindset contributed to their follies. Admitting personal accountability prompts the self-reflection and honesty to identify and improve blind spots.

They uphold integrity and earn respect.
It takes a bigger person to stand up and acknowledge “That was my fault” than to play the victim. Accepting responsibility, even for failures, earns admiration and bolsters your reputation as someone with strong integrity worthy of respect.

They retain control of their destiny.
As soon as you concede your outcomes are dictated by forces or people outside of your influence, you forfeit control of your future. Claiming your part inspires the shift in attitude and actions you need to start steering toward greater successes.

The path of least resistance is trying to rationalize, excuse, and blame away your setbacks on external factors—the market, other people, random unpredictable events, etc. And while situational factors surely play a role, refusing to own your failures ensures you evolve at a pitifully stunted pace.

But those with the poise to put ego aside in those bruising moments? They gain a competitive edge by extracting every ounce of insight from the experience and making the necessary adjustments to level up. They view failures as fertilizer, not evidence that they’re sub-par or hopeless.

So the next time you face a disappointing outcome, resist the urge to seek out scapegoats or shortcuts around accountability. Have the humility to take ownership, reflect introspectively on your part, and course-correct accordingly. The sooner you exit the blame game for good, the sooner you’ll start reaping the fruits of heightened achievement.

Because in Burroughs’ worldview, you only become a true “failure” once you stop willing to be accountable. Embrace that perspective, and watch your successes start to flourish.

The Road to Radical Self-Accountability

While the merits of taking radical accountability are clear, it’s a mindset that doesn’t come naturally to most. Our egos instinctively seek to protect us from feelings of failure, shame, and inadequacy. Breaking free from the allure of the blame game requires conscious and diligent practice.

One pragmatic method is to establish a routine of conducting brutally honest “after-action reviews” following any significant setback or underperformance. Resist the temptation to jump straight into fingerpointing. Instead, embrace the discomfort of sitting with the disappointment and systematically examining your own choices, efforts, and mindset that contributed to the undesired result.

It can be illuminating to apply the “Five Whys” technique from lean manufacturing—keep asking “why” until you’ve dug down to the root causes within your control, beyond just the superficial reasons. This deepens self-awareness about blind spots in your approach or counterproductive thought patterns that must be addressed.

Developing this habit of rigorous self-examination takes the sting out of failure. Rather than avoiding accountability to protect your ego, you’ll find yourself eagerly exploring each misstep to mine it for insights to uplevel your game.

Of course, there will be instances where factors legitimately outside your influence played a major role. But adopting a Default to Self mindset means you exhaust all potential personal accountability first before assigning blame elsewhere with integrity.

It’s also crucial to cultivate a supportive environment that encourages this degree of frank self-evaluation. Whether within teams, families, or social circles, create a culture where calling out your own flaws and taking ownership is normalized—not an invitation for criticism or judgment.

Ultimately, radical self-accountability is about developing a growth mindset grounded in humility and truth. It’s about refusing to rationalize or make excuses, thereby freeing yourself from self-imposed limitations. The more diligently you pursue this practice, the less constrained you’ll be by ego, blind spots, and misguided efforts—unlocking greater potential for sustainable achievement.

Related Inspirational Quotes

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” — Theodore Roosevelt

“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.” — Henry Ford