Celebrating Failure

         In this entrepreneurship class, we had to give out free money to random people on the street. My friends in this class didn't want to do this assignment because they felt uncomfortable giving free money to people. I was super uncomfortable, but I decided to just do it. On a Sunday night, I stood outside of a Publix supermarket in Orlando, and offered a dollar to anyone who walked out of the store. Every single person said no to me, and walked away looking at me like I was a complete freak. It was probably one of the most degrading moments of my life. Every person who I offered money to and refused to accept it was a failure. I learned that people will say no and it will make you feel uncomfortable, but there is no way to know if they will say yes unless you put yourself out there. Failure is embarrassing and insulting, but I have learned to deal with it by accepting it. If I am failing it is because I can improve on something. I could have used different tactics to give people the money. One can always improve on one's self, and that is what failure is all about. Not about failing, but about what you can change to succeed. This class has changed my perspective on failure by making me realize it's okay. I didn't fail the assignment because I didn't give away the money like most classes would have done. Instead, I wrote about how I could have improved, and what I would have done differently. I am much more likely to take risks now. In fact, there was an officer position open in one of my clubs, and usually I would not be the one to run for that kind of thing, but I am running, and I don't care if I loose. It's the experience that counts, succeeding is just an added bonus.