How my failure helped me to succeed
By Haniya Shareef, a senior at Lincoln Park Academy and Regeneron Science Talent Search 2018 finalist
Ever since I was a child, and even as I became a teenager, my driving motivation was to win. It could be something as small as a card game or something as big as the International Science and Engineering Fair.
When I was about 15 years old, I worked on a research project for over 300 hours that I had hoped to present at the Florida State Science and Engineering Fair. In my eyes, the project was unique in that it targeted an invasive weed that significantly affected agricultural industries around the world. I was confident that I would be successful at the fair. (Maybe a bit overconfident.)
I proved myself right with several rounds of successful judging. I was ecstatic, content, and had only one more round to get through. My last judge arrived and listened intently to my 20-minute spiel. I viewed this as a positive sign and when I finished I knew I had done my absolute best.
That was until he started questioning me.
He looked at my graphs and pointed out all the mistakes in my statistical analyses. He asked me for explanations I could not give and at the end of that night I felt like I was a failure.
I ultimately won nothing at the state or international fairs that year. I felt as though I had wasted those 300 hours on work that now seemed meaningless. But once I switched my perspective on what failure was, I learned lessons I had closed my eyes to before.
1. Failure can be a good thing.
Failure can lead to stagnation or it can help you grow by forcing you to pursue something outside of your comfort zone. I chose the latter. Not winning at the science fairs that year, motivated me to pursue statistics classes at my local college. I furthered my knowledge about statistical tests, and even made a statistical fact sheet before every fair. Ultimately, if that judge had not challenged me then I never would have taken the time to increase my knowledge base, a decision that was ultimately positive in my life.
2. Patience.
The project did not win that year and I was incredibly sad for a few months. I had worked hard and hard work never goes to waste, but in that moment I felt like it had. I realized that patience is a forgotten facet of hard work. With time, I learned to be patient, expanded my skill set and this year I was named a Regeneron Science Talent Search Finalist, an honor I never imagined would be bestowed upon me.
3. Giving up is not the same as trying something new
Being able to recognize failure allows you to reframe it into something that may be even better than it was before. I realized the value of flexibility, changing plans when they do not seem to work, and reassessing the reason for its failure to begin with. For example, my statistical design was not working. I had to change it for it to truly be impactful, which is a very different concept than giving up. Though one approach may not work, trying something new can potentially lead to a result that is more successful.
4. Relax, Stay patient and positive.
Stay patient and positive. Everything is going to come together; maybe not today but eventually. The depth of failure is often an indication of the height of success. I could potentially measure my depth of failure in 300 hours of grueling work but a positive attitude can be the impetus for improvement and success.
5. Success and Happiness CAN BE mutually exclusive.
Too often we think, “If I win this, I will be happy.” Or “If I buy this, I will be happy” but that is simply not true. Happiness is a mindset. It is not a prize and society’s obsession with success has major implications. Viewed as the only measurement of self-worth and happiness, success has created a mental anxiety within younger generations. This is at a great cost not only to psychological well-being of American students but also to the economic output of the American workplace. Depression and suicide rates continue to increase as society’s obsession with success increases. Things do not have to be going according to plan for you to be positive. Positivity is a mindset and being positive in the face of failure is one of the ultimate secrets to success.
