Failure Is Not An Easy Concept

When I look at the word failure I didn’t see success. But that slowly changed as I read the book What the Best College Students Do by Ken Bain Chapter four. Bain, for me and I’m sure many other, have changed our view point on failure being a bad thing. He instead expressed failure as an “opportunity to learn something.” (121) As infants we grow and develop, we learn to walk by falling down a couple hundred times, and we learn to speak by babbling. By trying to walk, and trying to talk, we may fail at first. As an infant, you cannot give up when you are face to face with failure. You must get up and try again to learn. In the book, What the Best College Students Do by Ken Bain he uses people’s experiences and research to explain why failure is an opportunity to learn something new, rather than seeing failure as something bad. He asserts “people who become highly creative and productive learn to acknowledge failures, even to embrace them, and to explore and learn from them.” (100) Failure is important. If we did not get up and try again as infants, we would not be where we are today.

Failing in various areas in life can give people a negative outlook on their own achievements. When failure strikes, people can become discouraged by their lack of achievements and give up. According to In Praise of Failure: The Value of Overcoming Mistakes in Sports and in Life by Mark Anshel, the author was a failure in numerous activities he wrote about in his book. “ I am not a failure (as a person); I failed at something” (Ashnel). This is a positive perspective on

Creating new opportunities is one way that failure can strengthen a person. For instance, Thomas Edison did not create the light bulb with just one trial. It took many trial and errors to get where he wanted to be. Without failing, he wouldn’t

Failure is a difficult concept for many people to accept because it is hard to understand what failure exactly is. The idea of failure can be seen in the concluding chapters of The Great Gatsby when Gatsby fails to achieve his dream of being with Daisy. The issue of failure exists within all people whether they are successful or not. The issue of dealing with failure is a difficult hurdle to overcome for many reasons, which includes ideas

Failure is something that we cannot go through life without experiencing. The best thing about failure is that failure can be used as a great learning experience to improve upon things in our lives and career. Using failure as a learning tool is dependent upon the person and how they view it as well as how they use it. Failure is a matter of perspective and the lessons in failure are important aspects towards growth and development. If we did not experience failure there wouldn’t be opportunities for learning. Failure can teach us about ourselves as well as provide an understanding for our

Failure is a part of everyone's daily lives; however, depending on the person you are you

I’ve learned that failure is a common part of life, but how you perceive failure is what matters the most. There are a lot of uncontrollable variables that can dictate a situation. However, the one aspect we are able to control is our state of mind and it is imperative to have a positive mental attitude. As described by Shawn Achor, in Before Happiness, if you allow a pessimistic mind set to control your outlook on a situation. Then, one will only focus on all the aspects of the failure instead of looking on how to improve the situation. Perfectly stated by Winston S. Churchill “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; and optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”

Throughout my life, I have experienced multiple failures. Putting in countless work towards a goal and not being able to achieve it in the end is a very frustrating experience, but it can also be a lesson for you to learn and become better. A time where I experienced failure was back when I was in middle school. My school will have an assembly at the end of each marking period, and a student from each class would be selected to go on stage and receive an award for their exceptional grades and academic performance. It was my main goal at the time to be chosen for this award, and I would work towards getting straight A's in each class in hopes of achieving this. My efforts were rewarded; my grades were excellent, I was one of the top students

Throughout my life, failure has been a constant reminder of how much I more I have to grow and learn. A time when I have experienced a significant failure was in my Calculus AP class. Before this class I would've thought that math was the easiest subject for me, hover, upon taking this course I've never been more wrong. The failure in this class progressed from a D to and F. I was devastated when I realized how inadequately I was performing, compared to previous successes. I remember studying all night for a test just to receive an F on it anyway. It was then that I realized that I was missing a fundamental step in the problem solving experience. Since I usually make really good grades, the thought of having an F on my progress report was eating

You only fail if you do not try. Failure is many times the stopping point of a person’s success. I believe that failure is actually pushing yourself forward to later reach your goal. This failure in my life has taught me to communicate more with my teammates and better prepare myself for what to expect. My experience with failure involved an after school boat building team. Every year, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California holds an event called the Solar Cup each year at Lake Skinner. This event involves many schools throughout California that form teams to build a boat that can be powered by solar. My team was formed with the combination of three high schools, Tahquitz, West Valley, and Western Center Academy.

The human race cannot be successful in everything it pursues; meaning that failing is inevitable. Personally, I believe how successful one becomes is dependent on the method they use to overcome adversity and failure. If Thomas Edison had given up on the light bulb, we could be still living in darkness today. However, I now look towards something much less significant-- my own experience of failure. This one has stood out among every other failure that I have experienced. Junior year, I failed English. I want to make it clear that this failure was, without a doubt, the most significant in my life. It completely changed the way I approached not only my academics, but how I approach life in general. Failing this course had more of a consequence than than just having to take it again. It showed me that I wasn't applying all of my efforts all into a plan that was so necessary and crucial to my future. After I failed, the situation was out of my control, but it made me realize I had not picked my priorities well. I knew I had to move past it and figure out how to rise from my mistake. I knew the first step was to complete summer school. I attended, and ended up passing the class. Then came the new school year

What is failure? It is defined as a lack of success in doing or achieving something. Failure is something that many people don't like to hear, but it's a part of life. It can be in a career, education, or everyday life. It's a step forward for some and a step back for many. You have to generally fail at something before you are able to find success. ‘’Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently’’ as stated by Henry Ford.

The word “failure”, by definition, is the condition of not achieving the desired end or ends. However, this standard definition does not come close to summing up the countless other meanings of failure. Every person, regardless of status, color, or sex, has had to deal with this issue at least once in their lifetime. Even so, each person’s definition of it can vary depending on their personal experiences. The interpretations of failure may differ, but failure itself involves not putting forth effort, being a disappointment, or not succeeding in a task.

Traditionally, failure is seen as a negative concept and is defined as lacking success. I, on the other hand, try to put a positive spin on everything in life. I see failure as an obstacle that is experienced by all, but it does not define an individual. Failure in essence will force an individual to be more receptive to their surroundings and actions and also will force an individual to mature. Looking back on my childhood years I can now pinpoint the areas where I failed and I can confidently say that I have grown and prospered due to those failures. The three major failures I have experienced were my attention deficit issues which affected my ability to succeed in school, my anti-social habit that I let consume my early years, and my

Failure is a compromising and alarming idea. When thinking about the drug control policy of the past half-century, failure is the only conclusion that one can come to. A dated history of combatting drug abuse with punitive measures has not led to the annihilation of illicit drug use. It has not created safer societies. It has led to the stigmatization and isolation of a substantial proportion of society and stimulated drug crimes. Now it is time to look back and address the negative consequences of past drug control strategies. It is time to reform the strategies of fighting illicit drug use. The National Drug Control Strategy, the Global Commission on Drug Policy, and the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy all advocate for