Like Volkswagen, Wells Fargo's avoidable failure was not the result of one bad apple but of a system that demanded hitting targets so ambitious they could only be met by deceit. Employees operated in a culture of fear that brooked no dissent. Rather than manifesting interest in salespeople's experiences while executing the cross-selling strategy and using what was being learned in the field to shift or sharpen the company's strategy, managers sent a clear message: produce – or else.

I don't mean to imply that working in a fearless organization takes more effort or a tremendously difficult undertaking. It doesn't. But initially, when we've been entrenched in fear and its attendant mental frameworks, it's not always obvious.

Thus, while those who are very wealthy like to believe that they are worthy of the financial rewards they have accrued, many poorer people don’t want to mess with the dream that they too might achieve such riches if only they work hard enough. For them to concede that perhaps the system was stacked against them—that money had become far better at begetting more money than working long hard shifts—would be tantamount to abandoning their sense of agency and their cherished beliefs that what made their countries different was that anyone who worked hard enough could be whatever they wished to be.

It was added to an already growing vocabulary of work-related ailments specific to Japan, most notably “kacho-byo,” which translates to “manager’s disease” and was coined to describe the overwhelming stress felt by middle managers over promotions, letting down their team, shaming themselves and their families, or, worse still, disappointing their bosses and weakening the company. But where kacho-byo is a problem that only afflicts white-collar workers, karoshi is an equal-opportunity killer that preys as eagerly on blue-collar workers as it does on managers, teachers, healthcare workers, and CEOs.

People such as James West and Jennifer Heemstra and Clarence Dennis skillfully applied the lessons they gleaned from painful setbacks as part of building successful and fulfilling lives. But we’re not hardwired to confront failure thoughtfully; we have to learn to do it.