I think success has no rules, but you can learn a great deal from failure.

The remark contrasts the seductive idea that success can be reduced to a formula with the more reliable, if painful, pedagogy of failure. Kerr suggests that “success” is too contingent—shaped by timing, taste, luck, and social circumstance—to yield universal rules. Failure, by contrast, exposes concrete mismatches between intention and outcome, making it a clearer diagnostic tool. The line also carries a wry, pragmatic tone typical of Kerr’s humor: it punctures self-help certainty while still affirming growth and learning. As a maxim, it encourages experimentation and resilience rather than rigid adherence to prescriptive “keys to success.”