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Bear Grylls OBE@BearGrylls · Jan 15, 2026

I failed SAS selection the first time. People don't know that. They just see the headline. But I failed. Here's what…

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Summary

The author failed SAS selection on the first attempt but succeeded on the second, discovering that most who passed with him had also failed previously. He emphasizes that failure is essential to success and that giving up is the only true failure.

Summarized by ThreadOut AI from the full thread. May miss nuance — read the thread below.

  1. #1

    I failed SAS selection the first time. People don't know that. They just see the headline. But I failed. Here's what that taught me. 🧵

  2. #2

    120 of us lined up on day one. They told us: "There'll be four of you at the end of this." I got about halfway through. I wasn't fit enough. Strong enough. Smart enough. Good enough

  3. #3

    I went back. And here's the thing: three quarters of the guys who passed with me the second time had also failed the first time. Second time was the key.

  4. #4

    The only way to get to the good stuff is through failure. Not around it. Through it.

  5. #5

    I'm proud of my failures now. I don't run from them. I'd hate people to think I've gone from success to success. That's not success. That's not real.

  6. #6

    The path to success isn't a straight line. It goes down before it goes up. There's only one real failure: giving up. NGU.