Elbert Hubbard once said, “A little more persistence, a little more effort, and what seemed hopeless failure may turn to glorious success.” In a large-scale study of teaching innovation in higher education across the United States, our research team was surprised to find that nearly all successful institutional changes were built on a foundation of prior “failed” change efforts. We wrote this article to share a message of hope to change agents working in higher education. Even if change cannot happen right away, assembling a foundation of interested collaborators, waiting for the right time to act, and thinking of past “failures” as opportunities to build the groundwork can result in productive changes. Acting once this foundation is in place and the timing is right significantly increases the likelihood of success. In the stories we highlight here, successful and sustainable change resulted from institution-based change agents who prepared