Notes From ND
Author: Mikayla Kraft, MT43 News Correspondent
Mikayla Kraft
MT43 News Correspondent
How many people walk into a project or task believing everything needs to go according to plan? If we were honest, it would be the majority of us. Why? We mix up the definitions of success and diligence. We measure success as the minimal amount of failure we experience. However, through this past week of studies and reflections, I want to propose a different idea. We succeed through failure, and we can only succeed if that failure is accompanied by persistence.
There is a stigma over failure in society. Failure means you are a loser, and losers can’t make it in the world. However, society puts the two types of failure in a huge bowl where we should be separating them: failure by giving up and failure through persistence. Failure by giving up obviously doesn’t lead to success, but why does failure through persistence lead to success? As we persist through trials, tasks, and projects, we actively try, and we try hard, wanting a positive outcome. Through this lens, failure doesn’t make you a loser. Failure makes improvements.
James Dyson made the Dyson vacuum that is widely used today. However, it was only through failure that he did this. Dyson made 5,127 different prototypes, became broke because of all his efforts, and was rejected by many manufacturers. It wasn’t until he took it into his own hands, sold it in Japan, and used his profits to start a store in England, that he revolutionized the vacuuming world. He failed over and over and over again. He improvised and changed things, and made an even better product in the end.
By no means do I actively plan to invent things and nearly go broke by doing it, but I take Dyson’s story as encouragement when I fail at my schoolwork, my goals for the day, or when I think I just won’t make it until the end of the year. I can’t run away from this failure, so why not embrace it and use it to my advantage? I can finish each semester with all A’s, I can manage my money well, I can wisely balance my school and personal life, and so much more, but only through persistence, even when failure strikes. As I challenge myself to look through this lens every day, I encourage you to do the same. Success comes through failure, and we can only succeed if it is accompanied by failure.
