The Interview That Changed How I Think About Failure

I have failed fifteen job interviews. I kept a list — dates, companies, the exact feedback they gave. "Not the right culture fit." "We went with a stronger candidate." The rejection always stung.

Interview number sixteen was at a startup in Victoria Island. The founder — a woman named Chidinma — sat across from me without a notepad. She just said: "Tell me about your biggest failure."

I had rehearsed a safe answer. The kind where the failure is secretly a success. But something in her directness made me tell the truth.

I told her about the business I started at 26 that collapsed in four months. How I had convinced my younger brother to invest his savings. How I had to look him in the eye and say it was gone. How I did not sleep properly for six months after.

She nodded slowly. Then she said: "That is the most honest answer I have heard in three years of interviewing people. When can you start?"

I got the job. But more than that, I learned something that changed me:

Failure is not the opposite of credibility. Hiding failure is.

The people who have fallen and gotten back up are not damaged. They are educated. And education is expensive. Own yours.