Hi there,
Failure at something is not correlated with success in life. Quite the opposite.
If you look at the richest and most successful people in the world, you will find most of them failed (sometimes in a huge way) before becoming successful.
Walt Disney, Stephen King, Oprah Winfrey, JK Rowling, Michael Jordan, Colonel Sanders all failed before achieving huge success.
It is totally fine to fail at something and I would be very suspicious if someone told me they never failed at anything. It doesn’t have a correlation with your future success. I would say the correlation is actually inverted. It is a painful but very effective way to learn and create the basis for your next success if you are willing to work hard and learn from your experience.
Can your friend become successful – even more successful than if she stuck to consulting? Absolutely. Remember that most people decide to leave consulting sooner or later (average time is 2-3 years) for better opportunities / work-life balance.
Best,
Francesco