Joe Macken: ‘Failure in Ireland is seen as cancer, but cancer that you’re giving someone – it's awful’When his restaurant group went into liquidation, the Crackbird owner left behind unpaid creditors and more than 100 staff out of a job. Photo: Frank McGrathKaty McGuinness Today at 06:30It surely wasn’t Samuel Beckett who first recognised the value of failure, but his “Ever tried. Fail better” quote – taken from his 1983 novella Worstward Ho – is the one trotted out most often. Elizabeth Day’s podcast, How To Fail, delves into the things that haven’t gone right with celebrity guests big enough to admit their mistakes. And in some countries, notably the US, failure in business is seen as an essential step on the road; there are few successful entrepreneurs who don’t have at least one failure on their record.

Source: Irish Independent January 31, 2026 15:48 UTC