Idiom
fail upwards
Meaning
To advance in one's career despite failure or incompetence.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“He keeps getting promotions even though he fails upwards.”
“Despite his disastrous management of the project, he managed to fail upwards into a vice president role.”
“The executive seemed to fail upwards, consistently securing higher positions after each corporate catastrophe he oversaw.”
Examples
simple
“He keeps getting promotions even though he fails upwards.”
contextual
“Despite his disastrous management of the project, he managed to fail upwards into a vice president role.”
complex
“The executive seemed to fail upwards, consistently securing higher positions after each corporate catastrophe he oversaw.”
Key words
Related idioms
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