I learned something very important during my content writing internship at Pixeltree: that failure is an essential part to success because it builds long-term resilience. Although this mentality is not new to me, the consistent encouragement and reward for it is.

Participating in our morning team meetings, mentoring opportunities, senior strategy meetings, and community engagement events during my internship showed me that you actually need to fail a lot before you can solidify your ideas and have any sort of meaningful impact in society. In other words, I learned that the courage to get redirected diversifies your thinking, and adds more depth to your ideas in the long-term. You need to “fail” before you succeed.

Failure = “[The] lack of success in doing or achieving something, especially in relation to a particular activity” (Collins, n.d.)” (see more)

In reflection, I disagree with the traditional meaning of “failure” because society often portrays it as something negative. If we take a step back and reflect, are we not succeeding when we learn what worked and didn’t work in an activity that we’re trying to be successful in? This mind shift is something that my team and mentors at Pixeltree showed me everyday during my internship, and will have lasting effects on me going forward.

With that said, there are 2 interesting articles by Forbes that caught my eye during my internship; so, I have referenced them here for you. One of them talks about how failure teaches people to better deal with disappointments (Arruda, 2015), and the other proposes a new definition of “failure” (Sime, 2019). I would add that failing is also important because it teaches people to become better problem solvers, and make more informed decisions in the long-term.

It’s important to fail before you succeed because the courage to do so builds long-term resilience. With that said, I hope that this blog post inspires you to challenge how you define “failure”, and how you respond to people talking about “failure” next time it comes up.

References

1. Nikon, 2016. “Full focus at a coffee shop”. Unsplash. https://unsplash.com/photos/1K9T5YiZ2WU
2. Collins (n.d.). “Failure”. https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/failure
3. Arruda, W., 2015. “Why Failure Is Essential To Success”. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/williamarruda/2015/05/14/why-failure-is-essential-to-success/?sh=7344260e7923
4. Sime, C., 2019. “Here’s A Better Definition Of Failure (And Success)”. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/carleysime/2019/01/28/can-we-please-redefine-failure-and-success/?sh=6afbea9361be