41. Friction vs Failure: The Chance to Build Durability

About this episode

The episode discusses the confusion between friction and failure and its implications for resilience in parenting and personal growth.

On this episode, we’re unpacking why we confuse friction with failure — in kids and in ourselves — and how that confusion leads to quitting when we should be getting durable. We draw from a Substack article by Ryan called “Quit Quitting for Your Kids.” Like most of his articles, you'll find an absurd number of concepts presented short and succinctly to get a full overview of the topic. We talk about Dips vs Culs-de-Sac, how “Life guarantees friction, but not all friction is the same", and cover important life lessons learned through quitting or not quitting. Keywords friction, failure, parenting, commitment, motivation, kids, resilience, quitting, long-term benefits, active listening

People in this episode

Hosts: Amber Hoover, Ryan Hoover

Topics covered

• friction
• failure
• parenting
• resilience
• commitment
• motivation

Keywords

• friction
• failure
• parenting
• commitment
• motivation
• resilience
• quitting
• long-term benefits
• active listening

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Quit Quitting for Your Kids

More episodes of Second Plan A

• 53. Closer to Danger: The Crash In Mindset · June 3, 2026 · 50 min
• 52. Pressure, Exposure, & the Black Belt Test · May 20, 2026 · 50 min
• 51. Fighting in the Present: Be Where Your Feet Are · May 6, 2026 · 45 min
• 50. Simple, Not Easy: Understanding the X Factor · April 22, 2026 · 1h 23m
• 49. Out of Balance vs. Out of Control · April 8, 2026 · 52 min
• 48. Failure Isn't An Option (and other lies) · March 25, 2026 · 35 min