ABSTRACT Fostering college students’ appropriate attitudes and behaviours towards errors and failures holds significant benefits for their future-oriented career development, such as self-development. Based on Conservation of Resources theory (COR), this study aims to set a linkage between error management culture (EMC) and college students’ self-development via grit and learning from failure. The sample for this study comprised 192 respondents from three universities located in the central, northern, and southwestern regions of China. The results indicate that: (1) EMC predicts college students’ self-development; (2) grit and learning from failure mediate the relationship between EMC and self-development serially. The findings contribute to the literature by shedding light on the significance of EMC as a predictor of self-development, elucidating the underlying mechanism, and recognising the long-term benefits of learning from failure.