English Phrase: Crash and Burn
Believe me; you never want to crash and burn.
Yes, you may say, it sounds like it hurts. Perhaps, it does hurt, but at least not physically anyway.
The meaning of crash and burn is to fail in something. But it is also a little more than that, the failure is sudden, and everybody notices.
Imagine for a moment that you are a stage actor who forgets their lines. There you are up on the stage, thousands of people are watching you.
You have studied and practiced to no end. You went on stage fully intending to give your all, to pour your heart and soul into your performance, and now you can’t remember your lines.
You’re crashing and burning in front of everyone. It’s a very public failure.
Or we could think about the world of technology for a moment.
Each year thousands of startups are created based on a single idea for software or a device.
And every year, thousands of these startups crash and burn.
Now, of course, this example is not entirely disastrous because failure is as much a part of success as achievement is, but it still hurts.