This is the story of how I went from failing every class in high school to a 4.0 GPA in university.

I’ve never told this story before because I was ashamed of it for a very long time, but that’s also why I think it’s so important that I share it.

This is for the student with failing grades who feels their dreams slipping further away with every passing day. For the professional who just got fired or laid off and feels like their career has just crashed and burned.

I want to tell you that I—through no discernible talent or special advantage—managed to climb out of that hole, and I want to show you how I did it so that you can too, and hopefully you will go further than I ever could.

The Worst 2 Years of My Life

From when I was about 9, I dreamed of being an engineer-entrepreneur who would change the world and run a massive biotech company, but by Year 11, I was flunking out of high-school maths.

Ranked last in my extension maths class, I clung stubbornly to a course everyone knew I didn’t belong in. Dropping down to standard maths would have been the logical choice, but I just could not bring myself to do that.

For two years, I gave it everything I had—staying up late, doing homework, going into a trance to listen in class—nothing made sense. My classmates were always ahead, confident, happy, while I felt like I was slowly drowning in shame and sorrow. I was watching the carcass of my dreams rot away right in front of me, just waiting for everyone else to notice the stench. Inside, a voice kept repeating: Why do I suck so much?

And yet, I was still there, fighting against fate, day and night, clinging on to hope.

Possibly the most painful moment came after my trial exam in Year 12. The paper was handed back with a glaring red “15/100”, with a note that read “see me after class”. My stomach churned as I approached my teacher’s desk after class, the rain pounding against the windows. He hesitated, then said quietly, “Ed, you need to drop this class.” There was something in his voice, something far worse and more palpabale than any insult: Pity.

That feeling hit harder than the words themselves. It wasn’t even about failing anymore—it was the crushing realisation that I was out of time. Before, I’d been in denial that maybe if I worked hard enough, I would get better in time for my final exams, but here I was, the illusion shattered like a mirror before me, I was confronted with the harsh truth: there was no more hope for me.

And Then It Got Worse

You’d expect me to say that everything improved after that, right?

Well, it did not.

I stayed in and failed extension maths, and probably most of my other subjects too, I don’t know because I was too ashamed to check. From memory, my final high school results barely scraped 63/100. Two years of trying relentlessly, and I had nothing to show for it.

When I started university (thanks to an early unconditional offer), it felt like the same pain all over again. I barely passed my first maths subject and failed my second semester entirely. The next year, I switched to an easier degree in dietetics, thinking I could at least salvage a future. But that path was hollow—it wasn’t the life I wanted, so I switched back to engineering because honestly, I had nowhere else to go.

Despite my terrible track record, I kept looking for a solution, it made no sense at the time, but I just could not quit. And then, that summer, something clicked. From a combination of experience, advice from my father, and mental maturity, I realised that I’d been doing the same thing repeatedly: practicing increasingly harder problems endlessly, year after year, expecting different results, the definition of insanity.

I think the realisation came from trying to solve that problem without giving up more than anything, and probably someone more intelligent would have realised that much earlier, but that’s how I got there.

That summer, for the first time ever, I tried a different approach: I rebuilt my maths skills from the ground up.

Before It Got Better

For six months, I studied three hours every morning, starting from sixth-grade material. That’s how far behind I was, by more than 8 YEARS.

I did this while working two jobs, maintaining relationships, and working out two hours a day, I studied my way up to calculus and beyond. For the first time, I saw progress. Solving problems became exhilarating. Effort felt good. I thought back to the past years, all the times I’d wanted to quit, to stop trying, and felt immense pride that I never did. I was here, getting better, because my past self chose life, every. single. time.

When I returned to university, it was like night and day. Problems I once found impossible were now solvable, sometimes with a lot of effort, but possible. Momentum built upon momentum, and I started thriving. So I kept studying, every single day, every night, even when I felt tired, even when I didn’t feel like it.

And then, at the end of the year, I got my new results for the same maths subject I had failed in my second semester. I reluctantly clicked on the results, and there it was, looking back at me, the thing I had fought 8 years to see: 85/100, a high-distinction, just barely, but it was a huge improvement. That moment was when I realised, for the first time, that I could do anything if I just never gave up.

I’m still in that journey today, watching my results get better and better every semseter. As my GPA approaches a perfect 4.0, I can’t be more grateful for all the years of pain that I had to go through to get here.

I know now that the real reward was never the grades or the GPA, it was this mindset, what I am sharing with you today. So, here they are, the lessons I learned from over 8 years of struggle, pain and tears, I hope you will use them to build a better future:

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The 4 Lessons I Learned From 8 Years of Failure

What got me through the despair of failing maths (and almost everything else) wasn’t an overnight epiphany or a sudden burst of talent. It was perseverance—the relentless commitment to showing up and doing the work, even when the odds felt stacked against me, even when that work seemed futile.

Because I didn’t know how to quit, I had stayed in the game, and I managed to do that long enough to realise that I could try a different approach. My goal had not changed, my methods had evolved, and it took 8 years for that to happen.

I learned these 4 crucial mental frameworks:

1. Focus on What You Can Control

I stopped obsessing over how far behind I was and focused on what I could do today. Instead of constantly reminding myself of how far I was from where I wanted to be, I focused on what I could do on any given day. Winning was in the effort itself, not the outcome—studying daily, seeking help when needed, and finding satisfaction in the fact that I had given it my all on that day.

The results would come and they did, but that was not under my control, my inputs on any given day were, and that is what you need to learn to focus on. If you can go to bed each day knowing without a shadow of a doubt that you gave it everything you had today, you’ve already won at life and I salute you. And the interesting thing is, once I started doing that, I realised that I was already living the life I wanted: I had the responsibility I craved, I had something to work hard on, I had a purpose.

2. Embrace Difficulty as Growth

I started to see struggle as proof of progress. Every hard-fought solution and every revisited concept became a testament to my growth. Finding the way forward wasn’t about avoiding struggle; it was about embracing it and trusting that effort would pay off. When the work isn’t yielding results, its because the result is you, the invisible growth from within that you just don’t see, until you do.

Had I known this as I was going through that hardship, I would have been happy. I see now that even though I did not know how to improve at maths, and indeed it took a long time for me to figure that out, I was learning how to persevere, which was far more valuable than any grade. I used to think those 8 years were futile, when in reality I grew more from the struggle than any class I ever took.

That’s the beauty of life for those that want to be better: growth comes from going through pain, and there is no shortage of pain in life, meaning that you have unlimited growth potential if you embrace that difficulty. Now, when I’m going through something tough like that, I think to myself: “Well, this is hard, which means that I will get better in some way, IF I just choose to grapple with it.” The harder something is, the happier I am because then I know the growth potential is extremely high.

Make hardship your ally, your compass, and you will become stronger than you ever thought possible.

3. Anchor Yourself in Your “Why”

The fear of falling short of my dream had always been a source of anxiety, but I learned to reframe it as motivation. I reminded myself why I wanted to succeed: to prove to myself that I could, to open doors for my future, and to make the impact that I wanted to make. Whenever I felt tired, or bored, or frustrated, I kept reminding myself of my “WHY”, that what I was avoiding or getting tired of was the way towards that, and it always got me fired up.

Find your why, no matter what it is, and keep it in front of you, remind yourself of it when you need to. It could be a business you want to start, responsibilities you want to have, even a dream home you want to buy, use what you have. Associate the things you do every day with that why, remind yourself that what you are doing today is what will inevitably get you there, then get back to it.

4. Retain Your Goals, Change Your Methods

When all else fails, don’t give up on your goals, find another way to get there. I did something quite right in those 8 years without even realising it: I kept trying to reach my goal, which was to get good at maths. Where I went wrong was my approach.

For a number of reasons, mostly out of pride and also from watching how people around me studied, I failed to recognise that I had to take a different approach. In my case, I needed to go back and rebuild the foundation, which in hidnsight I knew to be the case, but found quite hard because it would hurt my ego to do so, and because it actually was hard.

If someone else can do it, so can you. Either you will find a way, or build one.

It took a change in environment for that realisation to sink in, which is its own lesson, but the fact remains that I kept doing the same thing for 8 years, expecting a different result, when instead I should have tried a different angle.

Bonus: Be Patient

For some people, you’ll be able to internalise everything in one read, in one try. For others, it will take time. None of that matters because the outcome is the same, to be better.

And if you’re one of those people who need more time to take these lessons on board, know this: keep trying, because in addition to persevarance, you’ll also learn the skill of patience. In every struggle, there is an opportunity.

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From Failing to Thriving

The transformation didn’t happen overnight, and it wasn’t linear. But perseverance kept me moving forward, even when I didn’t know it. By the time I reached university, the habits I built during that difficult period became the foundation for my success, in anything, for as long as I live.

Slowly but surely, those small, consistent efforts compounded. Assignment by assignment, exam after exam, subject after subject, I got closer and closer to a 4.0 GPA. And the best part is, I enjoyed every single day of work and continue to do so. I didn’t just learn to work hard, I learned how satisfying it can be to do so.

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What I Learned, And How to Use It

Looking back, failing maths in high school was one of the best things that could have happened to me. It forced me to confront my weaknesses, develop resilience, and build the perseverance that has carried me through every challenge since.

If there is one thing you should learn from my story, it’s this: Forget about giving up, it’s not even an option, it should make no sense to you, and it won’t if you remember that your goals are all you have. I kept going because I did not know how to stop even when nothing was working, and that’s the only reason why I succeeded, not talent, not luck, not anything but perseverance.

Expect that everything will take time and effort, including internalising these lessons, and do it anyway. And if at first you do not succeed, try, try again, because some day you will, even if it takes 8 years.

Reaching your goals is a lot like digging a hole: some days, you get a shovel to do it, other days you get a spoon. Some days, you move mountains, other days you don’t even move one bucket; the point is to move as much as you can each day until the work is done.

You need to realise that if you can go to bed knowing that you gave it everything you had that day, you’ve already won.

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Thank you for reading to the end. There’s a lot more where that came from, you can subscribe to the newsletter for that. Keep growing, learning, trying, and you will realise your dreams, one day at a time.