Assignment 26A – Celebrating Failure

Assignment 26A – Celebrating Failure

1.      Tell us about a time this past semester that you failed -- whether in this class, or outside of this class. Don't spare any details! It'd be even better if there was something you tried several times this semester and failed each time.

                                I.            One time I failed this semester was with my first business idea. This was at the beginning of the semester and it was when we had one of our first assignments for the course. I do not remember exactly what the assignment entailed, but I remember it being about coming up with a business idea. The idea I had come up with was an app that helped people focus on studying. At first, I thought it was a cool idea and it seemed like something that was unique to me at the time. After doing more research I realized there were already apps that were similar to my idea. I had gotten to an assignment where we were supposed to interview people about our business idea and some people liked my idea and others mentioned that there were already apps that were similar and some people mentioned that my app would probably be too hard to implement. After getting all of this feedback and after some self-reflection I decided to switch to a different business idea for the remainder of the semester.

2.      Tell us what you learned from it.

                                I.            From this failure I learned that that not all business ideas are going to be guaranteed home runs. I learned that sometimes business ideas will seem like a good idea when it first pops into your head, but there is a difference between your idea at its conception and your idea further down the road when you analyze it further. I learned that for any business idea it is extremely important to analyze a business idea from all angles and that feedback from potential customers is crucial.

3.      Reflect, in general, on what you think about failure. Failure is hard, isn't it? It is embarrassing, sure, but it also means that we have to change something about ourselves. Talk about how you handle failure (emotionally, behaviorally). Finally, talk about how this class has changed your perspective on failure -- are you more likely to take a risk now than you were just a few months ago?

                                I.            I generally agree with the sentiment that failure is hard to deal with and it can be embarrassing. I think that failure is an absolute necessity in life and if you never fail you will never learn from your mistakes. When you fail, I think depending on how you handle it, you will come out a better person after the fact. I try to handle failure in a mature way, and I try not to take my failures too personally and use it as a learning experience. I think this class has changed how I perceived failure. I think we’ve all  been told at least once in our life that failure isn’t a bad thing, but from this class I’ve learned that failure is something that you should embrace so that you can come out of any situation a better and improved person. Any successful entrepreneur has most likely gone through a myriad of failures before they had their first successful business idea/ venture. I think this class has taught me that you should not see failure as this embarrassing obstacle in life, you should see it as a small bump along the road to success.