Try-Reset-Repeat Loop
Run a real attempt, learn from failure, reset, and try again.
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~ongoing to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 93%
Francis Ngannou describes progress as a cycle of trying, failing, standing back up, resetting, and trying again. The mechanism is practical rather than predictive: because he did not know whether boxing or any individual route would work, action was the only way to find out. Each unsuccessful attempt either revealed another approach or clarified the risk. Persistence therefore means preserving the goal while changing the route, not blindly repeating identical behaviour. Ngannou also recounts abandoning one barbed-wire attempt when he judged that continuing could kill him, showing an important boundary: commitment to an outcome does not require loyalty to a fatal method. The loop ends in success, an evidence-based redirection, or peace that the available path received a genuine attempt.
Origin
Ngannou connects this approach to pursuing boxing without knowing whether he would be good, repeatedly attempting to reach Europe, and later telling doubters that he never knew the dream would work—he kept acting until it did.
Core principles
- 01You cannot know whether an uncertain path works without attempting it.
- 02A failed attempt supplies information for the next reset.
- 03Failure to achieve an outcome differs from failure to act.
- 04Persistence must not ignore a clearly fatal or impossible route.
How to run it
- 1
Choose a testable attempt
Turn the goal into one action that can produce evidence. Ngannou frames the point as finding out through trying rather than waiting to know in advance.
Pro tip Make the attempt concrete enough that success or failure teaches you something.
Watch out Do not treat an undefined aspiration as an attempt.
- 2
Commit enough to learn
Give the attempt serious effort so that a setback reflects the route rather than a token trial. Preserve the distinction between wholehearted effort and reckless exposure.
Pro tip Decide beforehand what a fair attempt requires.
Watch out Commitment does not justify illegal or life-threatening action.
- 3
Read the failure
Identify what blocked the attempt and whether the problem was timing, method, skill, resources, or risk. Treat the result as information rather than a verdict on your identity.
Pro tip Name one fact the failed attempt revealed.
Watch out Do not romanticise harm as useful feedback.
- 4
Reset the route
Change the method while retaining the goal if the evidence still supports it. Ngannou moved between routes and later between combat-sport opportunities rather than requiring one path to work.
Pro tip Alter the smallest assumption that caused the previous failure.
Watch out Repeating an unchanged method is not a reset.
- 5
Attempt again or redirect
Run the next viable attempt, or redirect when no acceptable route remains. Judge yourself by whether you acted honestly on the evidence, not only by the final outcome.
Pro tip Set a clear safety or loss boundary before the next attempt.
Watch out Persistence is not an obligation to continue after the risk becomes unacceptable.
In the wild
Ngannou tried both fences and sea crossings while attempting to reach Europe. During one fence attempt, he concluded that continuing through the barbed wire could kill him and withdrew to try another route later rather than confusing that retreat with abandoning his larger goal.
→ He preserved the destination while rejecting a route he judged too dangerous in that moment.
A consultant launches a narrowly scoped offer, gets no buyers, and interviews the people who declined. The evidence shows that the problem matters but the promise is vague, so the consultant rewrites the offer and runs a second bounded test instead of either repeating the same pitch or abandoning the market immediately.
→ A failed launch becomes evidence for a changed second attempt.
Common mistakes
Repeating without resetting
The loop requires learning and changing the route, not replaying the same failed action indefinitely.
Treating caution as surrender
Ngannou's fence account shows that leaving an immediately dangerous method can preserve the wider goal.
Making outcome the only definition of failure
The framework distinguishes an unsuccessful attempt from refusing to gather any evidence through action.
Is it for you?
Best for
People pursuing uncertain but viable goals where multiple approaches can be tested safely.
Not ideal for
Irreversible, illegal, medically dangerous, or life-threatening experiments where repeated attempts increase unacceptable harm.
From the transcript
“if it doesn't work then at least a try”
“you try you fail it's okay you stand you stand back up pick your reset start again”
“failure is not taking action it's not even trying”
From the episode
Francis Ngannou Breaks Down Sharing Heartbreaking Story: "I Don't Know The Purpose Of Fighting Anymore", "I Feel Powerless", "I Don't Know How To Deal With This!"