But far from being embarrassed by efforts that did not work out, a growing number of people are embracing, and even celebrating their failures.

October 13 is the International Day For Failure, a day when people will be encouraged to throw away the shame associated with failing, whether the failure is personal or professional.

James Mabbott, head of KPMG's innovative services, said the language used to discuss failure has became more positive in recent years, and he credits the work cultures dominated by start-ups for this.

"To fail at something has broadly had very negative connotations. But with the emergence of disruptive start-ups, it's all built on this idea of taking a risk and failing and learning from that," he said.

Mr Mabbott said this change in attitude reflected the fact that failure can be good and points to how children use it beneficially.

"If you don't take a risk, then you can't learn and you can't grow as a person. If you look at how children learn and grow, they try things all the time and get it wrong and then they try again. They have a great resilience."

Day For Failure started in Finland in 2010, and recognises personal and professional failures, but without the guilt and shame that many experience.

Australian entrepreneur Nikki Durkin​ has spoken openly about the failure of her retail start-up, 99dresses, which allowed users to swap clothes.

She started the business fresh out of high school and was hailed as a technological wonderkid. But after moving to the US, she encountered problems with her working visa, investors backed out and $1.2 million in seed funding fell through.

"It's easier to accept defeat if you try and try and try but don't get anywhere. You call it a failed experiment. The failure is easy to justify," Durkin told medium.com last year.

Monash University associate professor Alex Newman, who is researching building resilience from failure, said there are physical and mental benefits to embracing failure and becoming stronger from it.

"It's about building a climate where people can share their negative as well as positive experiences."

Some of the world's most successful people, such as author J.K Rowling, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and businessman Richard Branson, have happily spoken about the failures that preceded their astonishing success.

But for those who don't have a multi-billion dollar success story to lean back on, the fear of failure remains real. A 2014 Global Entrepreneurial Monitor report revealed 30 per cent of Americans were less inclined to start a business because they were scared of failing.

The report added that social consequences, economic loss, or personal or psychic loss are what drives their fear.

Despite the fear of it, or perhaps because of it, failure has become big business. FailCon hosts conferences across the world, to allow start-up founders to find out more about their and others failures, and to learn from them.

And one Brisbane school, Brisbane Girls Grammar, has recently introduced a class called 'Philosophy of Learning', which will include building resilience so failure is not seen as a setback.

Organisers have recommended taking part in the following Day of Failure rituals:

• Use Facebook as you use it every day. Share a story about your day. The more embarrassing, the more likes it usually gains. People are weird.
• Share your fail photo on social media.
• Tweet your failure with hashtag #dayforfailure or read a bunch of fails from other people.
• Go to YouTube and search "fail". Remember, no one on the videos planned failing. It's just something that usually occurs after trying.