Think And Grow Rich: A Black Choice

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.

For example, in an article titled “Inequality, Race, and Remedy” for The American Prospect, Alan Jenkins states “Poor people of color are also increasingly more likely than whites to find themselves living in high-poverty neighborhoods with limited resources and limited options” (Jenkins). This illustrates that an individual’s race can completely affect their home, job, financial situation, and overall way of life. According to this article, person of color has a higher chance at living in poverty than a white person does. This example shows that colored people aren’t given as many opportunities and as a result, it may be harder for them to succeed in life. The oppression they face is all because of the color of their skin, not because they are any less smart or human than others. The poor lifestyle is a result of racial identification and false labeling. People automatically stereotype and judge black people because of their skin color and often times it has a negative outcome.

The short story, The Right to Fail by William Zinsser, explains how it is acceptable to fail and learn from one's mistakes and to not go down the path society has made socially acceptable. Zinner has a positive outlook on the concept of failing, he explains, “Success can be dangerous- you feel you know it all. I’ve learned a  great deal from my failures.” As life goes on, everyone may not succeed the same way or even succeed at everything they attempt to do, but it is important to learn from mistakes and continue moving forward and to find the path that works for you. Trying new things and failing or succeeding can open new doors to something better.

Clayton Christensen’s book, “How Will You Measure Your Life?” gives an example of Clayton building a Treehouse with his kids. Every piece was put together with his children. They meticulously and slowly hammered each nail. After it was finished, he noticed his children didn’t use it much. They did show their friends what they built and how they built it, and the story of them building it together. He learned that the journey and the accomplishment of building it together was worth more than the outcome. I remember a time when my manager told me to slow down and enjoy the journey. I felt she was missing the bigger picture. I could not fathom slowing down. I didn’t understand what that meant since my goals were to achieve a certain level of income and an accumulation of things by specific ages. These goals were my measure of success that I made it in life. I was a glory seeker with a need for approval and validation. I was single, and extremely motivated to create my destiny. I lacked the grounding of an integrated life. I didn’t make much time for friends and my community. I was the one who always arrived to work early and stayed late. Enmeshed in a struggle on behalf of some ideal. One night at 7pm, a leader asked if I had too much to do or nowhere to go. I answered, “Both.” My priorities were in the wrong place. My values needed to change. Failure and loss would help me to re-center and re-balance my approach and methods. Failure creates radical self-understanding and is

Sir Winston Churchill, a British politician from 1800’s says “Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.” Throughout my few years of living, I have learned that everybody is going to fail at something at least once. It is up to you to take all of your failures and turn them into success. It’s not going to only take one day but everyone is destined to be successful.

Another problem discovered by the author was that Negroes don't trust other Negroes when it comes to business. He talks about a negro man that stated," If we invest our money in some enterprise of our own, those in charge will misuse or misappropriate it. I have learned from the study of economics that we had just as well keep on throwing it away."(Woodson, 41) Some mis-educated Negroes gossips about other Negroes instead of supporting them, expecting that the fellow members of their race are destined to fail. The author states that yes Negro men may make mistakes, but it is because they are not being properly supported are the reason why their businesses are failing. When the Negro does do well in business, men around him grow jealous because he rushes out to build the biggest home, buy the finest

The Negro of today is a failure, not because he meets insuperable difficulties in life, but because he is a Negro. His brain is not fitted for the higher forms of mental effort; his ideals, no matter how laboriously he is train and sheltered, remain hose of a clown. He is, in brief, a low-caste man, to the manner [sic] born, and he will remain inert and inefficient until fifty generations of him have lived in civilization. And even then, the superior white race will be fifty generations a head of him.

This statement is decently accurate until the part where he says “all their own” for there are external factors which should be taken into consideration. Such as the coping mechanisms that come into play due to living with a struggle of everyday survival and how it is more than an adaptation of values that is passed through cultural transmission. Rather that it is a reaction from each black generation experiencing the same social challenges, such as racism or lack of job offerings, due to beliefs put into place long ago affecting current social class

He explained in detail many of the issues with race that he believes “this nation cannot afford to ignore right now. We would be making the same mistake that Reverend Wright made in his offending sermons about America: to simplify and stereotype and amplify the negative to the point that it distorts reality.” Many of the issues discussed were issues that have been a continual complication in America, such as segregated schools. He explained how segregated schools to this day, still are inferior schools. The inferiority of many segregated schools are responsible for countless obstacles for African American’s. Black children often receive a lesser education than white American children, which explains the common difference in achievement between black and white students. Likewise, legalized discrimination is one explanation for a substantial contrast in regards to white and black incomes. Oftentimes, blacks were rejected numerous opportunities to help their situation, such as “ the ability to own property, or approval of loans to African- American business owners, or black home owners who could not access FHA mortgages.” Although many of the racial problems in America involve African Americans, similar issues revolve around the white community. For example, many white American’s feel that they have not received any special treatment, and that black people have. Many times African

He uses the idea of religion when he says "continue to work with faith". This quote gives hope to the negros because it tells them to start wakening up their souls and start to work more spiritually. This quote also tell the audience that equality should be everywhere and for everyone not only for the black Americans but in fact for all religions.

For me, this quote is a response to the lack of media coverage of black ambition. We are given only rappers, models, athletes, and comedians as idols or role models. This is a concerted effort by the majority race to keep blacks in a palatable appearance to assuage the white fear of blacks. However, these images and people do not only affect the white citizenry, but also the rest of the United States population, especially the black youth. When the black youth that doesn’t have access to other role models, like parents who are doctors, uncles or aunts that are successful business people, or neighbors who are accomplished professors and researchers they lose the opportunity to dream of a different outcome for themselves. This is why I think

He states, “America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked ‘insufficient funds.’” (Jr). This is an analogy to which everyone can relate because everyone understands money and can recognize in being handed a bad check. He also speaks about discrimination and segregation. He uses this logic to make people understand that nothing will get better unless discrimination and segregation are eliminated.

This can be taught from this video because Denzel Washington states that even though we may fail, at least we will succeed soon. Also this has taught us we should never let our fails get the best of us when we will do better. For example he said that “Thomas Edison failed 1,000 times and the 1,001 try he invented the light bulb.” This is a great way to represent never give up because if Thomas Edison

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 often times leads a person to feel helpless, disappointed and depressed. However,one should not allow this to set them back in trying to achieve the ultimate aim one has set out to do. Failure in the beginning can often be a powerful incentive to reassess one’s position in wanting to achieve the particular aims; to analyse whether the purpose is worth the trouble the person has to undergo and the whether the obstacles are surmountable.