Freedom to Fail

Jeff Zentner shares his triumph through failure.

Failure. It’s a word most of us fear. A word that can bear the weight of what feels like the world. It’s something we all have to contend with at multiple points in our lives. Yet, a lot of times, even older people are afraid of the ramifications of failure. As humans, we want to do our best, right? But what happens when our best just isn’t good enough? What happens when everything we worked so hard for comes crashing down around us?

There are a million ways we can respond to failure, and Jeff Zentner had some words of wisdom on the topic at last Thursday’s In Process event. Zentner writes fiction novels for young adults. He began by saying, “I love how young adults love the art they love.” He expressed how important it was for him to be able to share something that young adults could connect to and learn something from. Within this, he began to tell his story of how he got into writing young-adult fiction, and the talk of failure came to the forefront of his journey … but in the best way possible.

Zentner began by telling us about some of his “failures” in his career and his life. He showed a very real humanness about the way he handled these failures, but Zentner was able to come out on the other side of these doubts. He said, “I was no longer afraid to fail.” At the point he started writing his first novel The Serpent King, he wasn’t afraid of the possibility of failing again. He had come out of his failures with an understanding that just because one thing in life didn’t turn out the way he wanted, that didn’t mean everything he touched was doomed.

And what a good thing that he was able to overcome this fear of failure, because wouldn’t so many people have missed out on the great work Zentner has offered young adults? He went on to say, “We are all afraid of people seeing us fail, but no one is keeping track of your failures, so you are utterly free.” Embarrassment of failure is something we all struggle with, and I think Zentner makes an excellent point is saying that while people seeing your failures may feel embarrassing for a few moments, they don’t define who you are. As humans we are allowed to make many many mistakes. The quicker people can come to that realization, the sooner they will be free to live the life they envision for themselves.

I commend Zentner for sharing this perspective with young people in particular. We have so much to offer the world, and if we can step out from the dooming notion of fear, I feel assured we will be able to conquer more than our parents, friends, teachers, family, or even ourselves would have ever thought possible.

“The Afterthought” is a weekly column by In Process Intern Lillian Reid.