Assignment 26A – Celebrating Failure

1.     A time when I failed this semester was during my managerial accounting class. Thankfully the first exam went well for me, but I understand it’s a difficult subject to comprehend. I poured blood, sweat and tears into studying for the first exam, every day was spent doing accounting homework, watching lectures, doing quizzes, doing practice problems, etc. Granted, that’s how you should be for any class, but during the fall or spring it becomes difficult to juggle 4+ classes at a time. I felt so proud after my first exam and at the time- exhausted. I will admit, after the first exam, I felt burnt out. Our second exam just happened on Thursday, which I did study for, but not as intensely as the first one. After I took the second exam, I felt like a failure. I felt defeated and I beat myself up in my head about how I should have done more, studied harder and not slacked off. The exam was extremely difficult for me, and maybe someone who took/is taking managerial accounting at UF can share their experiences in that class. Have you ever felt tired and defeated and drained emotionally and physically at the same time? Yeah, I felt like that. I beat myself up of how I wasn’t smart enough or wasn’t good enough to be at UF (which is a feeling I believe more UF students need to discuss). The exams are significantly more difficult than any quiz or practice problem. I quite literally may have failed that exam and I also feel a sense of failure (and no I’m not one of those people that think a 90 is failing).

2.     I learned that it took a lot of work for me to get the A on the first exam and I should discipline myself to the work if I want the results. Not everything will come to me naturally and that’s okay. I can’t wallow in my failure and let that cause another failure to happen. Even if I didn’t do super well on that exam, that just means I have to work extra hard on the last exam to redeem myself.

3.     I use to handle failure horribly, I will admit. I try my best to not let it get to me, but end of the day, I still think about what I did wrong, what I could have done better, etc. I beat myself up and dig a hole. I let that hold me back from trying my best at the next time a similar opportunity comes around because in my mind, why bother since I’ll fail anyway. Recently, I’ve been trying to not let that be my mentality because I understand the detriment of it. Failing isn’t a bad thing because as cliché as it sounds, I learn a lot from those tough experiences. You never reflect on what you did right whenever you succeed because you’re too busy being happy about it! But how come whenever we fail, we pick at every small detail we did wrong? End of the day, failing is okay and it’s not the end of the world. Just keep working hard and learning. Do not repeat the same mistake 50 times before learning.

This class has taught me that entrepreneurship isn’t about being the next Steve Jobs and more about learning. Entrepreneurs tend to fail more than they succeed and in my mind, I assumed the succeed very easily. However, the times they failed will lead to or have led to that success. I cannot say whether or not I am more likely to take a risk now versus before, but now I feel better equipped with entrepreneurial information for when I have to take those risks.