26A – Celebrating Failure
1) 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 biggest failure for this class was that I was completely blindsided by one of the most valuable assignments and had to rush to the point of considering skipping it and banking on the extra credit workshop. The assignment in question is 20 Growing your Social Capital. I normally plan these assignments ahead at least if I don't do them earlier in the week, but that week I had just looked at the other assignment and the title of this one before deciding I could wait until Friday. I don't know if I expected this assignment to just be more easy interviews or maybe doing the pitch to people in the real world, but when I read on Friday morning that I was supposed to reach out to real business people and talk about my product I had a minor panic attack. I started listing people and organizations that I could reach out to, and planning trips to different stores and locations so I could talk to managers and hope that counted for the three categories. Then I noticed that the assignment just said you had to reach out to them and didn't require details on what they said so I shifted my panicked planning from actual interviews with less relevant or useful "experts" for my product to finding people that really could help me and sending them a good email with questions, my idea, and my pitch. This last approach worked for the assignment and I thought I had improvised well, but I still have only heard back from the one expert I knew personally so my execution did not succeed the way I wanted it to.
2) Tell us what you learned from it.
I think this experience made me more careful about reading the details of assignments and tasks before a deadline surprises you with more thank you expected, and that changing your attack strategy several times before finding a path forward is scary but rewarding.
3) 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?
I think the idea of failure is more scary than the reality usually turns out. As long as you are not willfully doing something wrong, failure doesn't have to be a slight against you personally. If you take failure as a lesson and don't make as many mistakes next time then the failure added more value than any embarrassment or loss you received. In the last few years I had a lot more real world experience, which meant a lot or real world failures, and have noticed how my confidence and approach towards taking risks and dealing with setbacks has really strengthened.
I can relate to waiting to the last minute to do an assignment in this class and then realizing it was more in depth than I had planned. I was unable to complete the last two reading reflections due to time constraints. I have watched my points go down and this was mainly due to forgetting to upload URL to assignment. This was very frustrating for me. Failure is hard to eat but at the same time it allows for growth. Good job this semester and good luck in the future.
ReplyDeleteHey Paul-
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with you with regards to the fact that this course including assignments which can’t really be procrastinated with. Like you, I have also been forced to read ahead on assignments and plan my work week accordingly in an effort to refrain from missing assignments and their corresponding posted deadlines. This course has had a multitude of deadlines to keep up with!