This I Believe Essay

Tags: complacency innovation life obstacles resilience success

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Total Length: 963 words ( 3 double-spaced pages)

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Introduction


This I believe: success in life is wonderful, but it’s not the greatest teacher and it often doesn’t help foster experiences for personal and professional growth. Success is comfortable. It feels good. It attracts others towards you. However, I’ve always believed that one of the most important things to experience in life is failure. There are numerous reasons for this. This essay will explore the power of failure and the importance of failure. This essay will suggest that failure is one of the most necessary ingredients for enormous success. 



This I Believe Essay



One of the most intense benefits of failure is that it shows intelligent, talented people that they are not infallible. One of the obstacles of being talented and intelligent is that such people have often heard these types of compliments their entire lives. It doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re arrogant, but it can indicate mean that they assume that every endeavor they set out to do will be successful. Many talented, intelligent people have been successful in the bulk of the things they’ve tried to do—they got good grades as young people, got into great colleges, got good jobs after graduating. Why should any other endeavor give them different results? Failure exists to show talented, intelligent people that they are human and not immune to failure. It demonstrates that even the most gifted among us is still capable of failing, despite their gifts. Failure ensures that we keep learning, keep innovating and pushing ourselves to be better. Without failure, we would all just plateau in complacency. 



Another aspect of failure that makes it so valuable is the fact that it’s often very public. When most people fail personally or professionally, there are usually witnesses to watch. There’s an aspect of failure that is embarrassing, from a failed marriage to a failed company. Essentially one has told all friends, family and colleagues, “hey I’m going to try to do this thing over there!” and then one has to essentially tell everyone “hey, I was unable to do that thing I mentioned, no matter how hard I tried.” It’s embarrassing because it forces one to reconnect with one’s own humanity and limitations. Many people argue that failure can build character like nothing else, and that is definitely true. 



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Another benefit of failure is that it forces one to acknowledge there are some things that are simply out of our control. For example, we can’t control other people (like a difficult spouse).

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We also can’t control whether or not an audience goes to see a film produced or buys a product on the market, or uses an app one developed. These all might be things we had a hand in accomplishing, but whether or not they’re successful is sometimes not something we can control. However, what we can control is what we learn from our failures. When failure comes up and it is uncomfortable and scathing, it is our duty to take a step back, once we’ve recovered from the initial embarrassment and see what it has to teach us. Paul Koulogeorge recalls squandering $10 million dollars of Kraft Foods money on a product called Kraft Revelations Glazing Sauce for chicken. The product tested off the charts with consumers. No one bought it. This forced Koulogeorge to take a step back and look at where he went wrong. With failure, Koulogeorge writes, “…you develop a deeper understanding of your job and self. Not only will you not repeat the mistakes you make, but you also begin to ask deeper questions to consider every possible scenario. The TV commercial for Kraft Revelations was too confusing for a 30-second spot. 



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Even when people don’t take the time to learn the compelling lessons of failure, failure often does provide a razor-sharp level of clarity (Lindenmayer, 2013). Failure can often show you in an instant, just where you went wrong, and what you should’ve done instead. Failure is also a powerful innovator (Lindenmayer, 2013). If you’ve tried accomplishing a goal 50 times to no avail and haven’t been successful, failure forces you to think outside the proverbial box. Many people have argued that failure is the seeds of innovation because it sometimes forces people to take a less beaten path to reaching an objective.
 

Conclusion



In summary, failure represents one of the more uncomfortable milestones of life that is crucial for growth. Failure knocks us out of our comfort zone, and helps to build character and resilience. Failure forces us to….....

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References

Koulogeorge, P. (2017, November 20). The Surprising Benefits Of Failure. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2017/11/20/the-surprising-benefits-of-failure/#767058fa5ebe

Lindenmayer, M. (2013, December 2). The Five Major Benefits Of Failure. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaellindenmayer/2013/12/02/5-major-benefits-of-failure/#3f8062723699

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