Learning from Failure
❏ Be ready to listen.
❏ Write your answers in the second column.
❏ Remember to use proper grammar and edit your work!
Question
1. Before we watch the video, write
down how you feel when you don’t
pass a test or a course or if you
don’t make a team or get a job you
applied for.
2. Provide examples of people who
seem like “overnight” successes
but first had to deal with failure.
3. How can you learn from failure?
Example 1
4. How can you learn from failure?
Example 2
Answer
I am usually angry and disappointed with myself. But, I also realize
that we learn from failure and not from success. If we come across
adversities, we can overcome it by learning from it. I try to think this
way now instead of catastrophizing and cannibalizing every little
thing I did wrong. Failure isn’t a bad thing, it’s room for change.
● J.K Rowling: Rowling was a broke, depressed, divorced
single mother simultaneously writing a novel while studying
for school. She is now one of the richest women in the
world, she didn’t write all of the Harry potter novels and
made her way to success overnight.
● Micheal Jordan: He wasn’t able to make his high school
basketball team and confessed that he missed thousands of
shots and lost hundreds of games. He has made mistakes
all of his life. He never shot every shot and won every
game, he worked for it.
● Bill Gates: He is one of the Richest people in the world, but
he didn’t magically become lucky and build a massive
fortune: he worked hard for it - and experienced failure
along the way. His first project failed and didn’t make any
money. It wasn’t successful, but it did provide a learning
experience that Gates and his partner used for their next
venture -- Microsoft. What if Gates packed it in and called
it a day after he failed? If that happened, I can promise
you that his net worth and our technology landscape
wouldn’t be what it is today.
● Lets say that you take a test on adding fractions and you
got the entire test wrong because you make one little
mistake. You have now learnt a huge, huge lesson: maybe
you totally forgot that you need a common denominator to
add fractions, no you know you will not make that mistake
again because you remembered it.
● The creator of this presentation, Vanessa Vakharia, failed
and failed math in highschool. She thought that she would
never be good at math and got a 56% on her grade 11 math
course, she failed not one, but 2 times. She is now a
dedicated teacher, published author and a leading expert in
the field of youth engagement. She is the founder and CEO
of her company ‘Math Guru’ and is a frequent speaker at
math conferences. She loves mistakes and failure, for her it
is always a new opportunity and stepping stone towards
growth.