My Definition Of Failure Essay

When I sat down and read this prompt, I thought it was the worst prompt that could ever put on the list because it made me feel so vulnerable and weak. I was asking myself why would I admit to people, especially college admission officers that I had actually failed at something, not just one but plethora? I thought wouldn’t they look down on me for that, knowing that I’m not always successful at what I do? At the same I thought to myself, what is Failure? Is it not measuring up to standards or simply making an attempt without achieving the desired outcome?

“She’s stupid,” “They’re snobs,” “All they do is party” and the list of unflattering traits goes on. When people refer to cheerleaders, chances are they think horribly of you. Everyone see’s us as the good-looking girls who wouldn’t know anything. In years past, I was always seen as the nice, quiet, and smart girl. Until, deciding to become a cheerleader in high school. Everyone stereotypes cheerleaders as the pretty, dumb and popular girls. However, I am nothing like the stereotype people classify cheerleaders as. Although, I knew how people would view me and act around me I still decided to tryout for cheer. Despising the negative aspects that came along with becoming a cheerleader it was something I decided to be apart of.

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.

Failure is something that all people encounter in their lives. In some situations failure can break a person or make a person, meaning a person can fail at something and just simply give up. Others will fail and that failure can give them the inspiration to try harder to one day achieve their goal. I'm the type of person to fail and work harder until I am content. As my championship baseball coach would say "What’s our motto? Never give up!"

What is failure? According to Webster dictionary, failure is “ lack of success”. What exactly is success? Success is “ the correct or desired result of an attempt”, according to Webster dictionary. Typically, people may fail before they ever succeed. In Gender Failure by Ivan Coyote and Rae Spoon, Spoon felt that they succeeded at failing. Spoon currently refers themself as “gendered retired”; therefore, they refuse to identify themself within the gender binary (285). As well as, Spoon wishes to be referred as “they”, rather than, he or she. However, Spoon went through various identities until they accepted their “retirement”. At fourteen years old, Spoon thought they experienced “God failure”. Spoon felt that they were failing God considering

I remember the gut wrenching feeling looking at the bright computer screen on that Wednesday evening not seeing my name. The confidence I had a minute before was all taken away in an instant. I didn’t make the middle school cheerleading team. I know it seems like a first world problem, but I wanted more than anything to make that team and when I found out I did not make the cut I was devastated. I had worked so hard to put myself in the best position possible. I practiced motions, jumps, and even smiling until my cheeks went numb. Unfortunately, this did not do much in terms of getting put on the team.

Failure, noun an act or instance of failing or proving unsuccessful; lack of success. Santiago did indeed fail for several weeks or months. People who say that he failed are not wrong. He could not catch one single fish for a very long time and he did not quit so he didn’t totally fail he just couldn’t catch any fish for a long time. He did fail for a short amount of time but he did succeed in the end. Failing for Santiago was not an option. He caught that huge fish not for everyone else but he caught it just so he knew he could succeed

Failure is a missed opportunity, poor test grade, or missing the game-winning goal. Depending on its scale, certain failures can cause one individual to cry and another to shake it off. In school, one individual's failure is another one's success. I experience failure like this but at a different scale because to me, failure is more than disappointing my parents or teachers. I feel like I am defined by that failure, and that it will never vanish. This particular failure defines me and will stay with me throughout my school years.

Failure is a word that covers all aspects of education to a student. But when does the failure begin? Some say it starts at home with parents and some say it begins in the classroom with teachers. In Mary Sherry’s essay “In Praise of the F Word” she states that countless students do not have the skills they need to succeed. This can be very influential with education now a day. Educators and parents often praise students for simply showing up to class instead of praising those who work hard. Are we doing justice to the children of our future? No! We need to stop treating failure as our worst enemy and instead, embrace it with a positive attitude. Failure can show students where they went wrong and trying to fix it is the first part of success.

When it comes to failure, I do not think of them as failures, but as

Failure is also an achievement, with a negative result, opposite of accomplishment. A mother that shows no interest in raising her children, the children are not productive or morally responsible end in an achievement in failure by that mother. Not all negative achievements are failures. A negative achievement can become a positive, again it depends on the achiever and what they choose do with the achievement in question. “Success is not final; failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts”- Winston Churchill. Throughout history the most successful people had a relationship with failure and still went on to make their mark on the world. You can have a live time of fails and one success to make it all worth it. “I suppose there are clues about his life there in the shut-up-and-locked room, perhaps even some traces of my mother, but better to be content with ignorance, I’ve always thought, than haunted by the truth” (Brume 101). A given opportunity to achieve (negative or positive) should not be ignored, it’s a gift of a life experience that expands your senses and enhances thought, it’s not something to be afraid of. Bravery can only be filtered through fear, being able to

Failure, although a broad concept, involves a lack of effort, disappointing others, and not succeeding. Nevertheless, a

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

It is often assumed that failure is a deterrent to achievement. Rather, failure should be seen as a motivator for a person to keep trying until the objective or aim of a particular mission is fulfilled.

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