Marathons, Not Sprints: Why CFA Failure Can Forge the Foundation for Future Leadership
The CFA exam is a marathon—rigorous, grueling, and relentless. And like any marathon, you cannot sprint your way through it.
Yet many candidates try. They compress study plans into frantic weekends. They cram content, cycle through question banks on autopilot, and log their 300 hours as if the number itself holds magic. But what they often overlook is this: no one can sprint a marathon without burning out.
And that truth extends beyond the exam. It applies just as forcefully to a professional career.
Failure Isn’t the End—It’s Part of the Climb
Many of the world’s most respected leaders—executives, fund managers, founders, and board chairs—have failed at critical points in their lives. Not because they were unqualified, but because they were stretching into new territory, where uncertainty was high and success wasn’t guaranteed.
The CFA exam is no different. It demands judgment, composure, and long-term stamina. Failing an exam, especially Level II or III, may feel like a collapse—but in many cases, it’s a crucible. It separates those who need external validation from those who are prepared to build the internal resilience required for future leadership roles.
A Strategic Break Is Not a Setback—It’s an Asset
When candidates fail, the instinct is to immediately sign up for the next exam. The CFA Institute’s emails often reinforce that impulse: “Register now. Don’t lose momentum.”
But marathoners don’t recover by running another race immediately. They recover by stopping, assessing, rebuilding. The same holds true for CFA candidates.
A strategic break can be one of the most valuable phases of the CFA journey. It allows candidates to:
Understand what truly went wrong, beyond the score matrix.
Reflect on whether their approach to learning was passive or active.
Reconnect with why they’re pursuing the charter in the first place.
Strengthen their capacity to deal with ambiguity, failure, and pressure—qualities that are essential not only for exam success, but for roles where tough calls are made in the public eye.
Learning How to Fail is Learning How to Lead
Most mid- and senior-level roles don’t come with perfect clarity. They come with imperfect information, real-world complexity, and high visibility when things go wrong. In that world, technical knowledge is just table stakes. What matters is:
Your ability to stay calm when others panic.
Your capacity to make decisions with incomplete data.
Your willingness to keep going when the path is unclear.
CFA failure—if processed well—can become a rehearsal for that kind of leadership. It strips away the illusion of control and builds deeper reserves of judgment, focus, and emotional endurance.
CFA Failure Is Normal — And Often Strategic
It often takes more than one attempt just to understand what the CFA exams truly demand. Most other professional exams—whether in law, medicine, accounting, or actuarial science—expect failure on the first sitting, often treating it as a practice run to get the feel for the real thing. The CFA Program is no different.
If the designation aligns with your long-term goals and investment management is where you see your future, then the pace of your journey—fast or iterative—is secondary. Whether you pass each level on your first try or take a more winding route, what ultimately matters is that you reach the milestone and earn the right to use the CFA designation with integrity and confidence. Strategic professionals know the value lies not in speed, but in staying the course with purpose.
The Long Game Wins
If you’re feeling lost after a failed exam attempt, remember this: You are not behind. You are not broken. You are not alone.
But you do have a choice.
You can re-register impulsively, perhaps repeating the same flawed approach under the banner of momentum. Or you can pause strategically, regroup with clarity, and come back stronger—not just to pass the next exam, but to grow into the kind of professional who thrives in pressure, uncertainty, and high-stakes environments.
Careers are marathons. So are meaningful credentials.
Don’t sprint to keep up with someone else’s timeline.
Run your race—with purpose, patience, and strength.
Sometimes, it takes one attempt or more just to get the feel for the CFA exam at each level. If the CFA credential is what you really want and the investment management industry is where you want to be, then it really doesn’t matter if your CFA journey is a fast linear one (like mine) or slower because of failure and retakes. What ultimately matters is that you get to the milestone destination — the right to use the CFA designation.