Other people (or our idea of them) can induce feelings of failure and alleviate or transform them. Failure can be a very lonely feeling, but it’s always shaped by other people, whether positively or negatively. Our contributors share reflections on how easy it is to let yourself be trapped by others’ expectations, how pernicious comparison can be, and how it helps to talk honestly about all this. We offer suggestions for how to build failure-related conversations into your everyday life, as part of breaking down the more harmful elements of the public/private distinction. Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales; http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/