Where is the bottom? What's the worst that could happen?

[Kevin Armagno]

I am new to real estate, and though there is loads of amazing information here on how to succeed, I am looking for more information on how to fail (Not that I intend to!). So, given that there was a crash 10 years ago (and some people forecast another big one soon) and there are plenty of investors that do ultimately fail in healthy economic times, what does that look like, and how do you recover? A coworker of mine recently told me to only use conventional loans and not do "anything weird" (he owns a duplex) . I would like to feel like I knew what I was getting into if I did use private or hard money. Does failure count as experience? Does failure destroy your reputation and your credit? What happens/what does it look like if you can't pay a private or hard money lender? For that matter, what are the lasting personal effects of foreclosure? I apologize; I know it is an incredibly vague question. I just want to understand my risk and better understand the whole process.