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# The Art of Failing Forward
- URL: https://www.izackstjernberg.com/the-art-of-failing-forward/
- Published: 2026-01-28T08:54:57.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-12T17:31:09.000Z
- Description: What’s the unspoken secret that separates ordinary winemakers from true pioneers who rewrite the impossible?
- Author: Izack Stjernberg
- Tags: Off-season notes

Pioneers have always shown the way before anyone else has even dreamed of it. In some way, they are made of a substance that is hard to relate to. 

It’s a substance driven by curiosity and a thirst for adventure as two essential core elements, but there seems to be one governing principle behind it all.

Many types of people have it too, but rarely in the same way. Most of us have a limit to what we venture into, and usually our adventures end there.

Pioneers, on the other hand, begin where the rest of us stop. They seek the adventure that lies on the other side of the known world. The undiscovered and unpredictable.

They are driven by the desire to turn the impossible into reality, and that naturally requires a very special mindset.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c8/36/c8363e5d-0660-4ad1-a1ba-0a85635bbb25/content/images/2026/01/IMG_0064-1.jpeg)

### What will the pioneers say?

In this connection, I have thought a lot about what the fundamental principle of their mindset really is. I am aware that they are extremely willing to take risks, but where does that come from, and how do they convert it into results?

This is one of the things I plan to ask pioneers in the wine industry about in the upcoming season, and until then we can only speculate.

In my personal understanding, it revolves around their ability to master the principle of “failing forward.”

That is, to expect in advance that the project will fail and, as part of that, be able to learn more about the path ahead than the rest of us would under normal circumstances.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c8/36/c8363e5d-0660-4ad1-a1ba-0a85635bbb25/content/images/2026/01/IMG_0063.jpeg)

### Contains several principles

As far as I can see, this principle is common to all successful pioneers, and I would even dare to claim that the better they master it, the greater their probability of success.

The reason is that the principle encompasses other crucial principles such as perseverance, courage, discipline, and so on.

When you integrate the principle of “Failing Forward,” you therefore automatically achieve a wholeness that cannot be replaced by anything equivalent.

It is unique, and that is precisely why pioneers are unique individuals whom the outside world finds difficult to understand — right up until they have achieved their “impossible” result.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c8/36/c8363e5d-0660-4ad1-a1ba-0a85635bbb25/content/images/2026/01/IMG_0067-1.jpeg)