Oct 14, 2026 · 45 min · 10 segments
How do people fail upwards? Making mistakes, delivering poor results, or getting things spectacularly wrong, only to get promoted? In this episode of R2BW, we unpack the baffling reality of people…
Um, and, like, this is not a term that I rec- I recall earlier in my, um, in my corporate life or my work life that I actually heard of that often.
But it-
That's 'cause early in your life people were competent.
Don't it become like about the last five, 10 years you think, Dave?
Uh, I'd go a little bit further-
Yeah
... 'cause I, I think it's linked to the whole participation generation trophy-
Yeah
... into woke, into snowflake, helicopter parenting, all that stuff.
I'm hearing you.
I'm hearing you.
And I think, um, it, it is interesting, Dave, um, 'cause I, I got a quote here from...
I got a, I got a principle from someone, sorry, a reference to someone called Lawrence Peter back in 1969, and it's called the Peter Principle.
Yeah.
It says, "People are promoted for doing their current job well until they reach one they can't do, and then they stay there."
Mm-hmm.
Right? So-
I wish that was the case.
Yeah, failing up is stranger.
People who do badly still get promoted.
Yes.
So there's people who do well, get put into the next job, and don't do well but still do the job, and then there are people who don't do well at all, actually do badly, and still get promoted.
And we could all point to politics and say that's, that's failing up 101, but it, it's actually deeper than that.
So for example, when I was in, uh, the university sector, the University of Sydney in particular, there would be people in a team that were just incompetent.
And because, A, as you know, it's so hard to get rid of someone because you have to give them their verbal, and then their written, and then a second, and then you've got to performance manage them.
Um, and, like, this is not a term that I rec- I recall earlier in my, um, in my corporate life or my work life that I actually heard of that often.
But it-
That's 'cause early in your life people were competent.
Don't it become like about the last five, 10 years you think, Dave?
Uh, I'd go a little bit further-
Yeah
... 'cause I, I think it's linked to the whole participation generation trophy-
Yeah
... into woke, into snowflake, helicopter parenting, all that stuff.
I'm hearing you.
I'm hearing you.
And I think, um, it, it is interesting, Dave, um, 'cause I, I got a quote here from...
I got a, I got a principle from someone, sorry, a reference to someone called Lawrence Peter back in 1969, and it's called the Peter Principle.
Yeah.
It says, "People are promoted for doing their current job well until they reach one they can't do, and then they stay there."
Mm-hmm.
Right? So-
I wish that was the case.
Yeah, failing up is stranger.
People who do badly still get promoted.
Yes.
So there's people who do well, get put into the next job, and don't do well but still do the job, and then there are people who don't do well at all, actually do badly, and still get promoted.
And we could all point to politics and say that's, that's failing up 101, but it, it's actually deeper than that.
So for example, when I was in, uh, the university sector, the University of Sydney in particular, there would be people in a team that were just incompetent.
And because, A, as you know, it's so hard to get rid of someone because you have to give them their verbal, and then their written, and then a second, and then you've got to performance manage them.
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