Celebrating Failure

My Failure

1) The time I failed this Summer that comes to mind is when I attempted to ride my bike down to St. Augustine and back. When I first came home from school because of the coronavirus pandemic, all of the gyms in my area were closed, so I decided to ride my bike in order to get exercise. I would ride my bike everyday and go a little bit further each day. About a month and a half in, I would ride my bike down to Mayport, Florida, which is about a 25 mile round trip. This ride isn't that hard when it is cool outside and the wind is helping. I thought to myself that if I can do this, I can probably ride my bike to St. Augustine, which is about a 60 mile bike ride round trip. I decided that I would "train" for another month and do it then. Fast forward to June, and I am getting ready to start my ride. I do things like check the weather,  put air in my tires, get a bunch of water bottles, etc. It says that it's going to be 90 degrees but that doesn't really bother me because I have been riding my bike in hot weather this whole time. I start my bike ride and I'm doing pretty well until I reach Mickler's Landing. The wind starts pushing against me and the ride gets a lot harder. I'm about a quarter of a way through my ride, and I am drenched head to toe in sweat and I'm tired. I decide to ride back home instead of finishing. There is still a bright side I guess, which is that I got a good workout that day.

2) One thing that I learned from this experience was that preparation is everything. When you plan something big, you need to account for all factors. In my case, it was the wind, the heat, and the training I should have done. As far as training was concerned, I just kept riding to Mayport and back, which is pretty far but not close to how far St. Augustine is though. If I were to redux the training I did, I think that I would have biked further than 25 miles. I think that I would have biked something close to 60 miles so I can get a feel for how long the ride actually is. As far as the heat is concerned, I was riding in slightly cooler weather. Summer in Florida is hot no matter what but May is definitely cooler than June is, like it is a drastic change in how hot it gets. Finally, overcoming the wind is a big challenge. I think that I should have done more resistance training so I could tolerate the times that the wind started to pick up. In all, preparation is everything. If you are not prepared, you are probably going to fail. This applies to business as well. If you don't think of every little thing that your business is going to face, when it hits you, you won't know how to deal with it.

3) I think I can speak for everyone when I say that no one likes to fail. However, it is a necessary thing. Personally, I think that I handle failure and losing pretty well. I can attribute this fact about me to playing sports when I was younger. For instance, I played a lot of baseball when I was younger and in high school. There were games where I struck out twice or missed an easy "pop fly". I would beat myself up about it for the moment, but I realized that it wasn't the end. There were going to be other times that I was going to batting, or when I would be able to make a play. I think it is important that everyone realize that just because you make one mistake, doesn't mean its the end of your baseball career or your business. I think that this class has reaffirmed my belief about failure. It kind of surprised me when Dr. Pryor talked about mistakes being a part of starting a business. I always thought that business was the one place that you couldn't make a mistake, because your livelihood depends on it. However, Dr. Pryor said that you need to make mistakes in order to learn what customers want and to see whether your business creates value. I think that I am more likely to take risks. Taking risks are a part of life and most of the time, you can get a lot of good from taking risks. For instance, going to a VC. You can get a lot of good resources if they like your idea and if they don't, all you get is a "no". Failure and risks are a part of life, which make us better people for experiencing them