Fail Better

Failure is always viewed as a negative consequence. People always assume that failing is the end of the world, a horrible thing to do, and can do no good. I want to propose the opposite: Failure is Your Best Friend. For most people, this is a love-hate relationship, and that is perfectly fine, but anything less than that, is so much worse. Despising failure will take you nowhere. It is only when we use the failings to our advantage can we be truly successful. Someone who went through so many trial and error attempts used his for betterment, not his defeat. Thomas Edison, accredited with creating the light bulb, did not get it right on the first time, nor the second or third. Instead it took him 1,000 tries, and instead of discouragement he stated this when asked about it: “I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.” He used those failures as part of the process, and then he created light bulbs. The World Economic Forum shares much information about u...

In this post, I want to emphasize the importance of stepping away and taking breaks, whether it is in failure prevention or recovery, taking a moment can make all the difference when it comes to failure. In a preventive measure, taking a break and coming back refreshed can lead to greater success. Sometimes we all get caught up in hurrying to finish things and that means that sometimes we rush, or do not give proper effort to said things. The amount of time or kind of break depends on what fits into the situation. It can be in the middle or anytime, and it simply serves as a small distractor to come back and focus once more on the task at hand. This practice is seen in many instances. Take for example, large tests like the ACT, SAT, MCAT and many others, these tests all offer types of breaks ranging in the number of minutes, and the number of times they are taken. Those small breaks can give the needed time to reorganize thoughts and give time from constantly looking at the words on th...

Being a leader takes many things, communication skills, organization, people skills, patience, and well planning, and typically leadership is shown as a sideways pyramid. Keeping everyone as equal, with one person overseeing the entire whole. This very traditional way of viewing leadership is almost outdated. In a recent TEDTalk given by Lorna Davis on leadership, she discusses this and how it can be almost detrimental. Davis’s idea is that independent leadership is not the solution, she states “t he idea that one person has the answer is ludicrous. It's not only ineffective, it's dangerous,” she goes on to talk about how we need one another, and because of the interconnectedness of our world and society, that a single person holding all the answers is nearly impossible. It’s a typical superhero approach, and can lack so many aspects of being a good leader. Collaborative leadership allows for a network of individuals to have a say together, finding solutions that solve the is...

Whenever you think “it can’t get worse” or “this must be rock bottom” it inevitably tends to get worse. It can be small minuscule tasks, or large things, rock bottom, is not actually the bottom. This post is slightly more related to life than it is failure, but it teaches an important lesson. The lesson that I am trying to share has to do with how we view our situations. There is a slim chance that I will manage to have a good and successful way if I go around saying “well, it couldn’t get worse.” I have a story to go along with the post. It was from my senior year of high school. I was running late for school - well late to my standards - and I was rushing out the door. When I got in my car, I was driving too fast, and hit the curb on the corner of my street. I ended up popping the tire and throwing off the alignment of my car. I thought the day truly could not get worse, and I said that very thing out loud, next thing I knew I had a surprise quiz in Calculus, which didn’t go my way....

Growth is not linear, neither is progress. I cannot start something today, and only see positive results moving forward, and so many people are stuck under that expectation that they will always get a positive result. That is so far from true, growth is not a once track path to the top, but filled with many ups and downs along the way. By the time success is reached, the path to get there will look more like a roller coaster than a staircase. So many people get discouraged and feel like failures when in reality, they do not understand that growth is not linear, and will not happen from simply trying one time. There are ups and downs to reaching success, and I, like many others have experienced them in my life and the endeavors that I choose. I want to share a brief story about a time when I didn’t have a growth mindset, and that was during my senior year of high school. I was taking an advanced class, Calculus I and II, it was an experience to say the least. We were talking about some ...

As part of the Theodore Roosevelt Honors Leadership Program, it is only fitting to include some wise words from one of our past presidents. I have chosen two quotes taken from “The Strenuous Life” to share how Roosevelt viewed and spoke about failure. (see text here) In these two quotes during his address it is clear that Roosevelt never let failure stop him, or define him throughout his life. Both quotes are more than advice but serve as a way of life that allows one to not view failure in fear but in ambition.  The first quote: “I t is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.” When I read this I immediately think that he is reminding the audience that if there is no effort, then there is no chance for success. If the fear of failing, or not wanting to experience failure is so great that it inhibits us from trying, that is to Roosevelt worse than failing. I happen to agree with that statement, if I try and fail, I at least learned something, but if I give up ...

I know I am not the only one that is guilty of going on social media and seeing everyone posting their best lives to find myself feeling sorry for myself. I see everyone traveling to sunny beaches or out with their friends in classy outfits. Sometimes the couples photos or even fancy dessert pictures make me feel like I am missing out. Like my life is not as good because I don’t have ultra edited pictures or thousands of likes on my posts. However, that is not reality, the things on social media that we get jealous of or envy are not those people’s reality. No one wants to post the bad things, or even the subpar things in their lives. I do this too, I try to only post the best pictures or things that I know will get likes. One of my favorite features of instagram is hiding the like count. I started doing this on all of my posts and I would have to go through a lot more work to find out how many people saw it. I have been able to put my phone away and not worry about it. I also started ...