Fear Not
For most people, failure is a daunting thing. The very thought of it strikes fear into whoever aims for success. Schools tend to perpetuate and even teach fear of failure to students, causing students’ creativity and originality to be stifled by that fear.
What people, especially students, often fail to see is that failure is a critical component of success and should be embraced, not shunned. In "Failure is Not an Option" from Bad Ideas About Writing, Allison D. Carr claims that "Failure should be welcomed, if not actively sought out, signaling as it does both the presence of creative, risky thinking and an opportunity to explore a new direction" (para. 3).
Failure is NOT the end of the world, and it isn't the end of you. When you fail, it simply means that you've found out that one thing doesn't work and that you should try another and keep trying until you find something that works. Failure is progress, not a setback. The more a person fails, the more they learn about and understand the nature of the problem, what caused them to fail, and what they need to do to achieve what they wish to achieve.
Success does not come without risk. Risk does not come without courage in the face of failure. If students spend their college years living in fear of failure, they will not take the risks necessary for them to reach their full potential and succeed. It is critical for students to learn to welcome failure so that they can happily embrace the success that follows.
Colonel Sanders, the founder of KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken), failed thousands of times in his lifetime before finally succeeding and becoming a multi-billionaire.
Just imagine how things would have been had he given up!
Luckily, he didn't. Watch his success story here: