Assignment
26A – Celebrating Failure
·
Tell
us about a time this past semester that you failed -- whether in this class, or
outside of this class. Don't spare any details! It'd be even better if there
was something you tried several times this semester, and failed each
time.
·
My business finance
course has been giving me trouble, and has been the most difficult by far. I
failed the first exam since I was studying concepts rather than doing a lot of
practice problems. I was very unhappy since I’d spent hours studying for
the class for nothing. I needed to do
better on exam 2.
·
On the second exam, I
got the same score, and was very confused.
I had studied a lot of practice problems and learned better ways to
study, yet it didn’t even show in my performance. Next semester when I retake the course, I
have all the knowledge I need to succeed going forward.
·
Tell
us what you learned from it.
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I learned concepts
behind things aren’t as important as just practicing over and over again until
you get it right. It takes dedication to understand hard concepts, and
they may not come easy at first, but you can’t give up on them.
·
Reflect,
in general, on what you think about failure. Failure is hard, isn't it? It's
embarrassing, sure, but it also means that we have to change something about
ourselves. Talk about how you handle failure (emotionally, behaviorally).
Finally, talk about how this class has changed your perspective on failure --
are you more likely to take a risk now than you were just a few months
ago?
·
Failure is definitely not
a good feeling, especially when you put a lot of work into something and still
been unsuccessful at it. Telling my parents that I didn’t pass was not a
pleasant thing to do. However, to
advance in anything, failure is a key component. Learning from what you do wrong is key in
finally getting to accomplish something right.
Failure allows you to receive feedback and change your approach to a
situation.
·
This class, through
constantly having to modify my business plan based on external feedback and a
changing situation, has definitely better equipped me in accepting failure. Entrepreneurship is one big process of
failure and changing until you find what works.
I think I am more likely to take a (controlled) risk now, because you
can adjust your actions pretty easily based on the feedback you get.
You are absolutely right. Just think of Edison and the amount of times he was met with what we would define was failure.
ReplyDeleteI recently read in a book for a GEB class something along the same lines. It talks about interviewing for jobs and how it’s a series of No’s. What they said is that you’re out actually looking for x amount of No’s so that you can finally hit that Yes.
The concept is kind of like playing a slot machine that you know is a loser for 50 games but game 51 is the winner. You have to get out there and do.
You’ve presented an idea in the class to your peer group that is solid and forward-looking. Once life gets back to normal you should run with it and see how far you get.
I completely agree with you on your outlook about practicing concepts in order to best understand them. I think that same concept can be applied to entrepreneurship. Just like in business finance, we have to learn, practice, fail, and then apply the new lessons learned from the failures. I definitely had a hard time in that class too, especially with the issues I’ve had this year so far!
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