Discussing "failing down" my good friend came to some new conclusions:
Failing Down
You're right, that's negative, a better term would be failing up. This is based on Marian Anderson the great, probably greatest of American singers. Her first big concert was in Carnegie Hall where she failed miserable and totally because she had inadequate preparation.

Her mother told her, Honey, Grace has to come before Greatness, now get to work. When she was denied an appearance before the Daughters of the American Revolution because she was black, Roosevelt arranged for her to sing on the steps of the capitol.

So some failure may be needed to give us the gift of grace.

Anyway, there's a lesson there. I'm tempted to develop a talk on it or even write a book, maybe.

All the best, Ray