Dear readers,
In my English class, our teacher constructed a project that enabled us to search within our hearts and minds to ask and answer a question that we were passionate about and tied to the American Dream. She referred to this task as “soul searching”.
My first initial thought that came to mind when I thought about the American Dream was success. To live the American Dream, you must be successful in your life. I got to thinking, “What is defined as success?” So I wrote down a list of things that I thought to be considered as successful. Among this list were two major icons of success; fame and fortune, but as I thought longer, I realized I knew many successful people who aren’t rich or famous. Success comes in many forms; the common and the prestigious. Success isn’t always about having the most money or being the most known, and I came to find this as I added more to my list. I recognized even the simplest of things can be a success. Getting a good grade on a test is a success, making a steady pay check or paying the bills is a success and every day you wake up and live, you are succeeding. I found this as a great revelation, but another thought struck my mind. If everything is a success, then what is considered failure? This thought is what caused my epiphany. I realized that failure is inexistent.
Taken back by the thought of failure not existing, my mind opened up to a whole new perspective in life. Everything about life became so much grander, and the idea of success seemed that much more magical. Upon this discovery, I thought to myself, “What would people attempt to achieve if they knew failure does not exist?” This question intrigued me so much, I wrote it down and turned it in to my English teacher.
While researching success and failure and deepening the meaning of my question, I became very passionate in my work. My fascination with the inexistence of failure enthralled me. I decided I would take my passion for writing, and combine it with my passion of the topic to share my views and perspective with others. In doing this I could tell you that I am one hundred percent right or I could share with you my thoughts. I do not ask of you to agree with everything I say, but I encourage you to look at a different perspective and ask yourselves; what would you attempt to achieve if failure did not exist?
Sincerely,
Carley Webb
“Failure is success if we learn from it.”
-Malcolm S. Forbes
Success is something we all want to achieve in life. Everyone wants to do something great, make a difference, or be remembered for doing something spectacular. And who wouldn’t want to? It’s part of our nature as humans to desire success because success makes us happy. But when we don’t achieve our dreams and desires right away, we call it failure. We look at failure as a disappointment, but we should look at it as a way to learn. Every failure teaches lesson. Without the failure of Thomas Edison’s first attempt to create an electrical light bulb, he may have not been able to succeed the ten thousandth time. Each time he attempted to make the light bulb, he not only learned how to not make a light bulb, but he learned bits and pieces of his ideas that could work. These ideas contributed to the success of the light bulb, and are the reason you are not reading this next to an oil lamp.
One thing that is also admirable about Thomas Edison is that he did not fear failure. The fear of failure can constrict us from attempting great things. For example, my mom told me that when she was in high school, she wanted to become a writer. When I asked her why she didn’t, she told me she thought she wouldn’t make enough money, but she’ll never know if that’s true or not because she let the fear of failure get in the way of her aspirations. I think we don’t realize the consequences of the fear of failure until we look back and see the things it has stopped us from achieving. When I get older, I want to be happy with the decisions I made and I don’t want to look back and think, “Man, I wish I would’ve done that” or “Why couldn’t I have followed me dreams?”
A company called DARPA, the creator of the internet and many other significant inventions, banishes the fear of failure every day. The company director, Regina Dugan, refers to DARPA as “a magical place where nerds create the impossible by not fearing failure”. When creating an invention, DARPA has no room for discouragement in their working environment. They look at failure as a mini success because it draws them a step closer to overall success. Many inventions this company has created would never have even thought to be possible or even perused, but when we extract the fear of failure for the equation of success, new ideas are attempted and with these attempts come success. Regina Dugan summed up this statement when she said, “When you remove the fear of failure, impossible things suddenly become possible”.
When we eliminate the fear and concept of failure, not only do impossible things become possible, but a door opens that leads to success. This door is called the mind. A write from Wayne State University states, “It seems like we have trained ourselves for security and risk aversion and failure avoidance that not only do we not attempt great things—we can’t even imagine them anymore”. Without the fear of failure, we allow our minds to think more freely and confidently so that we may achieve success. If success does not come at first, we have allowed ourselves the opportunity to learn and become one step closer to achieving our desired goal. Once we allow ourselves to see that failure is inexistent and not succeeding is merely an act of learning, we can not only ask ourselves what we would achieve if failure did not exist, but we can accomplish those certain dreams.
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I hope this has allowed you all to take a new perspective on failure and success. I encourage disscussion and will take part in the comment section below. Also, if you would like to share what you would achieve if you knew failure dous not exist, private messege me or let me know and I will post your response in the next part. Thank you all who took the time to read!:)
