Difficulties as Stepping Stones to Success, Essay Example

Difficulties As Stepping Stones to Success

Throughout my life, I have endured many failures which have provided the stepping stones toward the eventual successes in the goals I set for myself. Whether my interest was academic or athletic, failures were inevitable, daunting, and numerous.  Every failure I endured  encouraged me to give up completely and pursue an alternative activity. Although the value of failure was not apparent at the time it occurred, I have come to see my successes in many areas as the culmination of lessons learned through the correctional benefits of failure.

The word failure has negative connotation, but the unique and unrivaled improvements it provides through corrective progression in subsequent attempts prove more valuable than any other mode of improvement. Trials and tribulations grant a very insightful tool for perfecting a person’s attempt at a new project. Walter Brunell conveys this in his apt quote: ‘Failure is the tuition you pay for success’.  Success is derived only through the lessons learned from failure.

One particular example in my life regarding failures and eventual success occurred in high school. I once took a class in English Literature, and I was so secure in my writing skills, that I barely put any time into the essays that were assigned to my class. After all, in my previous junior high school classes, I obtained decent grades and praise from all of my teachers. In short, my arrogance made me believe I would never get poor grades in subjects devoted to grammar and literature. This false sense of security was destroyed when I received my first writing assignment back from the teacher of this high school English Literature class. The paper was littered with red ink, large bold criticisms and corrections stood out and filled me with despair. I had failed. For a long time, I lost my confidence in writing.  For a time, I felt so discouraged, I had to hide that horrific paper that contained copious amounts of that bright red, self-esteem-reducing ink.

This struggle in my life involved a different kind of failure. It is typical to anticipate success when anyone begins a new endeavor – often the possibility of failure does not exist. That is why it can be such a devastating experience when anticipated success results in the complete opposite. It is a very unpleasant surprise. I remember first being shocked – going through a list of possible mistakes the teacher made. Perhaps she gave me someone else’s paper. Closer inspection proved it was definitely my assignment. And my confidence plummeted, causing me to want to cry. I managed to hold tears back, but it took every bit of concentration I had not to cry.

Even though I was prepared to give up and take a different class instead, I tried again. By reading the teacher’s comments, I improved. The failure had actually provided me with the corrective tools I needed to success subsequently. And on my next assignment I had substantially improved. With each new assignment, I heeded the teacher’s comments and perfected my craft until I was getting perfect scores. Each failure gave me reference points for areas of improvement. And by carefully using the failures to guide me in what not to do, I was able to finally reach success. Failure should never be end of a person’s pursuits. Rather, that failure has given the person an advantage over other who will never try. Through the repeated failures, new techniques are developed to perfect the person’s craft until eventual success is achieved. Improvement through failure is the best stepping stone to the goal of a successful venture.