How Failure Is the Stepping Stone to Success, With Lisa Swanson, MD

At LEADderm 2026, held August 29-30 in Newport Beach, California, Lisa Swanson, MD, a board-certified pediatric dermatologist at Ada West Dermatology in Meridian, Idaho, who is on staff at St. Luke's Children's Hospital in Boise, presented a talk titled ‘Failure Is the Stepping Stone to Success.’^1,2

Swanson spoke in an on-site interview with HCPLive’s editorial team on the topic of how she pushed dermatologists and other clinicians to treat setbacks as a source of direction rather than something to avoid.

Swanson told HCPLive this was her first LEADderm conference, and she plans to attend every year going forward. She said the location and content combined to make her feel like a better leader already, even before delivering her own talk. She said the blend of leadership content and destination setting was unlike other dermatology meetings she attends.

The idea had sat in a notes app on Swanson's phone for years before Jennifer Soung, MD, the founder of LEADderm, invited her to bring it to the conference after hearing her describe it informally. Swanson said the invitation moved the concept from something she had been quietly workshopping into content she actually had to build and deliver. Once committed, she prepared by reading extensively about failure while traveling to conferences, an unusual sight she said drew curious looks from fellow travelers.

"We all fail. Everyone fails. But we need to be able to look at it positively, learn from the experience, let it empower us to keep going, and gain some resilience and grit," Swanson said.

Swanson said her talk uses examples of well-known successful people who experienced failure in their own careers, framing setbacks as universal rather than exceptional. She said dermatologists should expect moments of stumbling and treat them as material for growth instead of evidence of inadequacy.

Swanson said failure can point in two directions: it can build curiosity and new skills, fueling a desire to keep pursuing a given path, or it can signal a path is not the right fit and a new direction is needed. Either way, she said the setback becomes a tool for self-improvement rather than a reason to stop. She described failure as the experience most likely to teach dermatologists the most over the course of a career.

Editor's Note: This transcript has been edited for grammar and clarity using artificial intelligence tools. Swanson had no relevant disclosures of note.

References

1. LEADderm. About LEADderm: the missing curriculum. leadderm.org.

2. Conference Preview: 2026 LEADderm Conference in Newport Beach, CA. HCPLive. https://www.hcplive.com/view/conference-preview-2026-leadderm-conference-newport-beach-ca.