Some years ago, in the high school where my cousins studied, the annual science fair was taking place, it was a tradition in that school that at the end of the year will be held this fair to encourage the passion for the science areas requiring students to so desire to conduct research that they could put into practice in some way, the participants were separated into different age categories to make competition fairer. Once the fair began, the jury walked around each of the places where the exhibitors showed incredible work from the theoretical part to the practical lines to expose their ideas and take for granted that a good investigative work was done.
It was the turn of the students between the ages of fifteen and seventeen, in this group was a young man of seventeen years belonging to the hall of the elderly, this boy was none other than the one with the best academic average of the whole institution , known for his excellent average which was justified with great wisdom and ability to learn. After observing a good amount of experiments, the jury approached the table where this boy would present his project, obviously all eyes were placed on the young man from whom a magisterial topic was expected as well as his presentation. Indeed, as was to be expected the young wonder to all with his great project and his great research, an exhibition worthy of prize, once finished the presentation the jury proceeded to the round of questions to which the young person responded calmly and with great security to the first two questions, however, the third question was never imagined by the student which made evident by the expression of his face that He didn't know the answer to that question, the boy only seventeen years old, after having took the compliments of all, was silent after the teacher's question, did not pass five seconds when he fell in front of everyone, we could see how the boy visibly dazed by what happened at that moment collapsed completely inert stamping the face on the floor of that place where the fair was held, such was the impact that the young man's mouth broke leaves a real river of blood flowing from his lips to his chin.
The boy took about five minutes to react, still remained the center of attention of the fair, but not precisely for exposing the best project, finally despite the incident the jury ruled as the winner of this boy who just minutes ago was totally passed out on the floor. For me, it was inevitable to think of that scene, that boy totally accustomed to perfection, to the fact that he was always victorious, having prepared himself a great deal to defend his project at the fair, he didn't see it possible, to encounter a question that he was not able to respond, this added to the pressure of being in that situation, exposing his idea in front of the whole school and of course the jury. But what happened with that boy went beyond simply suffering from nerves and giving in to the pressure, it was a response of his body when facing perhaps for the first time what could be considered a failure.
That young man represents only one more case of the group of people accustomed to perfection, people for whom the word failure does not exist in the dictionary, of course it is good to successfully execute any task or activity that you propose successfully, but how much positive can be the fact of being so accustomed to success? I'm not saying that it is a negative thing to be successful, I say the opposite, It is a very good thing, the bad thing is to think that the result will always be positive, it is a very good thing to always have a winning mentality, but the fact of being predisposed to this in each occasion and not to consider a possible failure within the possibilities can have very negative results in the individuals, as an example, we have this brilliant boy who couldn't stand the fact of being with a question that could not respond in his presentation and therefore it fell unmasked before the eyes of all.
Failure is an unavoidable part of our lives, failure to do something that you propose is never pleasant; failing that exam for which you studied so much, not winning first place in the singing contest, losing the final of the baseball tournament, are unpleasant moments in which failure is present, the important thing in these situations is to take the experience, to be able to improve and achieve something positive, but to be able to take this attitude must be aware that even if it is the last thing we want, failure fits the possibilities, nobody wants to be who fails the decisive penalty shot in the World Cup final, no one wants to slip in the dance contest, but what if this happens? Are we ready to overlap, or are we going to faint in front of the jury?
I do not want to say that you go out to present your next exam thinking that you will fail even if you have studied a lot or thinking about how you are going to ruin the exposure of your project in front of the head of the company, because if we are predisposed in that way we will be limiting ourselves and We are never going to overcome. When I told my father what happened to that boy in the presentation of his project, he was not slow to remember his old roommate in college, he was a brilliant young man with academic excellence, his notes always stood out in the room until the moment that He never thought arrived, he failed a test, this fact to which he was not accustomed really shocked him, so much so that he was in a period of depression and even considered abandoning the university, all this because He failed a test never enter into his range of possibilities, not being prepared for this possibility hit him in a very strong way, and even had to resort to a psychologist, in order to overcome it, he had to accept that, however unpleasant it was, to fail an exam was in one of the options.
We must learn that failure can come at any time and that when it happen It doesn't have to be totally dark and negative the panorama, we must take it as an opportunity to learn from mistakes and improve, the trick is not to deny failure but to know how to take advantage of it, if we close this possibility sooner or later we will get that question that we will not know to answer or that test in which we will not get a very good note and the consequences can be very negative if we aren't prepared, the important thing is to know how to react to not fall faint or enter in depression, We must accept that failure is part of life and that although it should never be our first choice it is possible to run into it and it should not represent the end of the world for us. And you? Have you ever felt that the world ends when you fail? Or have you learned to take advantage of it?