Similar to my celebrity crush and pseudo-father Drake, I'm the furthest thing from perfect (like everyone i know)
Despite my failures, I am always schemin and plotting on the low. Always trying to improve the ratio between success and failure. Ive encountered a few recent failures, something I'm not proud of but can use to ignite the path to triumph. The important thing is to bounce back from this- to become a Phoenix of failure if you will; reborn from the ashes and becoming something powerful and beautiful. Today, I'd like to share my most recent failure, one that happened not in the classroom but on the basketball court.
Full court. 5 on 5. The score that we all updated mentally had just become 20-16. The score seemed close but in reality the difference couldn't be greater. I felt I had failed multiple times. I had missed easy shots, turned over the ball carelessly, and in one incident threw up a 3 that fell about 2 feet short of the rim. This was strange because usually I am a decent athlete, but on this night lacked focus and vision. Every play I tried, but could not seem to make anything work. It wasn't my body that was failing me, it was my mind. I got stuck in the rut of self doubt, and didn't have fortitude to pull myself out.
I learned a lot from this game. I should never take ability or odds for granted. Study, play, teach, lead like you still have to prove yourself (which you do). Stay hungry, and use failure as a stepping stone to success. After that game, I spent hours shooting, doing drills and practicing. Next game went so much smoother, the only thing smoother was my game winning mid range J.
Failure is the inability to meet an established goal. This is true in almost any setting or aspect of life. Work, relationships, school, personally and externally. One thing I like about myself is my general indifference to failure. Yea, I obviously don't want it to happen, but if it does I don't cry about it or freak out. I just know another way of NOT to do something (shoutout Edison and the lightbulb). This class has shown me that failure can be a tool. It's just a part of business. Not something you necessarily want to repeat, but something that is invaluable to finding true success.
Hey Anthony, great job on your blog post! I really enjoyed hearing your perspective on how you "celebrate" failure. I liked your analogy about becoming a Phoenix and rising from the ashes of failure; I definitely agree that it's only failure if you stay down instead of getting back up and trying again. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteIf you would like to check out my "Celebrating Failure" blog post, you can find it by following this link: http://entrepreneurshipbyisa.blogspot.com/2016/04/celebrating-failure-week-13.html
I totally agree with you, Anthony. Sometimes we have to celebrate our failures because they really do teach us a lot. I enjoyed your sense of humor throughout the post. I like that you related it to something other than school. You also did a great job of making a point to show that we can learn from failures outside of school and work. Every failure is a learning lesson. I agree that failure is not fun and not something that we want to experience, but sometimes it is necessary. Thank you for your positive attitude. You did a great job. It made this assignment very enjoyable. Thanks for sharing. Check mine out at http://summerborges.blogspot.com/2016/04/my-exit-strategy.html
ReplyDeleteHi Anthony,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your post! I can especially relate with what you said about "Stay hungry, and use failure as a stepping stone to success." I strongly agree with you and believe that no matter what the failure, there is always something to learn from. And thats exactly what we should do. Learn from it and learn how to apply it to our future success.
Feel free to check out my Celebrating Failure post in the following link:
http://efp13.blogspot.com/2016/04/celebrating-failure.html