“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”

~Winston Churchill~

Failure is something that we often try to avoid mentioning in our daily life, however, it still comes up as an inevitable part of life. We could not go straight to the success without experiencing the bitter taste of failure.

This afternoon, while preparing for the dinner, I received a message from my CIMA team mate about the result of the shortlist round. Unfortunately, we have been eliminated from the further round. Surprisingly, I was totally calm on receiving the news though one month ago, I pictured myself deeply depressed if we could not make it to the next round. I checked Facebook on my mobile phone and knew that one team I know in my school have been chosen to the finale (I must admit that I do not like the leader of this team much, however, I also have to admit they do have a lot of strengths in comparison with my team). Although I was a little bit disappointed, I did not fall in deep depression as I used to be before. I realized that my attitude to failure has been improved much by the time. It does not mean that I am kind of people who are indifferent about the success and failure, the best reason to explain for this attitude of mine is my better-improved awareness of success or failure.

This positive attitude could be considered as one of the most hard-earned and valuable lessons I have obtained during my time at university. I have failed in a lot of competition, have been rejected from a lot of programs. Sometimes, I have screamed out loud and asked why life treated me like this. However, as I tried more, attended in more competitions or internship programs, exchanged ideas with my peers more, I realized that success could not be measured only by the glamorous title I get but the real accomplishment or the lessons I learned. Though I have failed in the internship with ACB and SEO but this 3-month journey is really meaningful to me. I have chances to practice my interview skills with the expert in recruiting, have opportunities to practice the process of job hunting. I learn how to make research on the potential employers, try to find out the difference of each company and learn how to ask appropriate questions to the interviewers. Though I did not manage to reach the national round of CIMA, but I have learnt more about business case studies, got to know more about business strategy, which we do not have chances to learn at school. We also consolidated our transferable skills and more importantly, we have good time working together, sharing with each other many things other than the case such as our career orientation, our dream. And this failure can be the key to other doors leading to the bigger success. In my case, the experience with CIMA GBC has been written in my CV and presented in the interviews with my potential employees. And it works, actually.

And here comes the status on my Facebook:

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
~Winston Churchill~
Therefore, don’t let this failure discourage you. What we
have learnt and the fun we have got by the journey are much more valuable.

Success should be measured by what we have learnt rather than the glamorous title we get. It is our persistence to stand up after falling without losing enthusiasm to the next challenge. Therefore, don’t let yourself be discouraged by any dispirited experience. We are not certain if this failure could lead us to any further success in the future.