Why Failure is Good by Rebecca Nicole Sy

 As a child, the thought of failure scared me. It was the constant source of my stress and anxiety. I grew up poor, and my parents did not have the privilege of purchasing many luxuries, such as a phone, or new clothing and jewelry. However, even though we didn’t have a lot of money, I have always aspired to have their handworking and altruistic spirit. Both my parents work persistently to continue to develop their career to support our family, and I am extremely grateful to have them in my life. Their dedication has pushed me to work as hard, if not harder, to ensure that their efforts are valued and honored. As a result, I surmised that if I didn’t live up to their standards and my own high standards, it would be the same as being ungrateful for their tireless hours of hard work. In other words, I thought if I failed to do something well, I would be failing them - and my worth as a person would no longer exist.

 

I have lived by this rule for most of my childhood, which in turn made me constantly second-guess my words, choices, and actions. I lacked the confidence and desire to take risks, fearing the possibility of failure. My lack of confidence translated into many aspects of my life - school, sports, extracurriculars, my social life- to name a few. For instance, I played point guard on my basketball team, and ironically, I was scared to lead the team as I didn’t want to make any mistakes and let my team down or worse, embarrass my family. Every time I dribbled the ball up the court, all I could think was “don’t screw up Becca just please don’t screw up”. Although I loved playing the sport and being on such an amazing team, my doubtful thoughts prevented me from growing as a basketball player and more importantly, stunted my leadership abilities. I finally opened up to my dad when he first noticed my hesitance in applying new skills during games. One thing that truly resonated from our conversation was the quote from Wayne Gretzky, “you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take”. 

The hardest part of my journey in taking risks was starting, as it meant leaving myself vulnerable to the unknown. When you are faced head-on the possibility of failing, it is a lot easier to be safe, avoid the risks, and stay in the comfort of where you are. But if we don’t take risks and start, we will never progress and live up to our endless potential. You can never succeed unless you try. All you have to do is take the first step, and before you know it, you will grow. After you take each step, it is also important to reflect and build on what you have learned. If you made a mistake, no worries! Just learn from that mistake and apply that learning to the next step you take. As a child, I was petrified of public speaking. However, I decided to take a risk. I applied and got elected as a club captain position, which required me to speak in assemblies very frequently. This was the first step. After speaking in multiple school assemblies and leading the club at my school, I built confidence as a leader and learned to take risks. What’s the worst that could happen? I might forget my speech and say the wrong words. So what? I can just restart, refocus, and go again. It is highly unlikely that someone is going to throw tomatoes at me. Even if they do, tomatoes are good for you! To summarize, to grow and become successful, we must accept failure and face it head-on. We must take the first step, regardless of how big or small the step is. Act, learn, build, and repeat.