Most education systems convey a perception that there is one way to be successful by getting a single correct answer. The implicit argument is that getting correct answers then leads to productivity: publications, grant awards, and job security through promotion. This is despite general awareness that much is learned in the process of failure. In fact, failure is inherent in the scientific process where exploring and discarding multiple alternative hypotheses are the building blocks of discovery. Discovery often happens through slow, incremental progress that comes from patience as topics are learned, questions developed, and experiments executed, often repeatedly, before yielding informative results. Practicing scientists must continuously face failure with courage and results with open-mindedness, while always exhibiting probing curiosity in order to move forward, while practice of any kind requires tenacity as seemingly endless questions arise, courage to assess and share results, and humility when results do not support hypotheses. Successful students learn the process of identifying answers but often not how to problem solve when something in the process fails or the context changes. Successful and good scientists face scientific challenges with humility and move ahead knowing that failure is inevitable. We will discuss our failures (from failed experiments to challenges balancing family stress with academic expectations), and when and how intellectual character were or should have been employed to move forward, both towards a successful scientific project and through our academic transitions from graduate student to technician, and to professor. Our aim will be to share perspectives, resources, and approaches for addressing failure that could be helpful across all career stages and circumstances.