We here at The Spotlight would like to take this opportunity to offer our congratulations to the members of the Class of 2012. Those graduating high school mostly did so this past week, and it has been several weeks since colleges held commencement ceremonies.
Graduation is a momentous occasion in any young person’s life (or for an old person, for that matter). It also offers up an opportunity for well wishers to heap on advice about the future being in plastics and whatnot. We could not stand to pass that up.
So let us speak directly to the recent grads now. You’ve spent the vast majority of your life being groomed for success by those who care to make sure you start life on the best footing possible: your parents, your teachers, siblings and even your friends. You’ve probably worked hard to perform at your highest level and by extension, make those who have invested in your future proud.
Which is something you should do, of course. But as you step out into the world or bid the nest farewell for college studies, try to keep in mind that despite all your preparation, studying, the help you’ve received and the practice you’ve put in, you’re destined to fail.
At least at some point, that is. Some of you have probably learned this important lesson by now, but many of you have not. There is a lot of importance put on success in our society and that bar seems to keep being moved back to a younger and younger age to breed a Hunger Games-esque level of competition and expectations in our schools. So the abundance and regularity of failure is a life lesson that tends to be obscured pretty readily these days.
You’re pretty much guaranteed to screw up now and again, sometimes in a big way. It might just adversely impact your grades, or a mistake could drastically impact the course of your life. The important thing is to learn something from every fall, get up and do better the next time.
Pretty clichéd advice, to be sure, maybe even worthy of an eye roll from our younger readers. But consider how much failure many of the greatest successes had to wade through.
Thomas Edison is quoted as saying, “If I find 10,000 ways something won’t work, I haven’t failed. I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward.” And he lived that principle, basing his search for a better light bulb on a trial and error process that was undeniably inefficient and ham-fisted — but it worked.
J.K. Rowling, the author of the unimaginably successful Harry Potter series (and who is probably more well known than Edison as this point), was destitute when she sold her first Potter manuscript — after having it turned down 12 times. A few years later and she’s worth something like $1 billion. It’s fair to say the world would be a different place if Rowling had hung it up after a dozen rejections.
The list rolls on and on: Henry Ford (who was looked at as an abject failure at 40, before he invented the Model T), Babe Ruth (who was better known for striking out before he broke the home run record), Dr. Seuss (whose first book was rejected 27 times) and leaders the like of Dick Cheney, Winston Churchill and Harry Truman (all of whom either flunked out or dropped out of school at some point).
The point to all this is to illustrate the importance of continued growth along with the relative unimportance of figuring it all out right away. Take the time to try new things and find out your place in the world and remember: failure is more than an option. It’s a requirement.
