A student of life fails

Today, I became increasingly frustrated with myself and this season of life I’m in.

I find myself in a really tight spot financially and am not doing well in that regard. I’m frustrated with myself and how I was a straight A student throughout my entire upbringing, went to college and got a good degree, and then started to work in corporate America.

And I hated it.

I knew very early on that that path was not for me. And so, I went to grad school and got another degree. This time in teaching.

So, I found myself ultimately perpetuating the cycle I found myself in; public education, a space where I wasn’t prepared well for life, and yet felt so familiar to me. It was the treadmill I was used to, and so I kept running on it. Now this time back to reinforce the same culture to the next generation.

I became really good at that system. I cracked the code on what it takes to be a straight A student: don’t ask out of the box questions. Memorize a ton of information and never question authority. Regurgitate that information. Kill your creativity, because it doesn’t have a space to be honored in that environment. Be afraid of failure, and do all that you possibly can to not fail. Why? Because failure is bad, wrong, and devastating. Avoid failure and you will be successful as a result. Don’t ultimately learn to think for yourself.

You may have heard it said that the millionaires and billionaires of the world were all likely not straight A students. They questioned authority. They were brave enough at young ages to question the system and ask “why does this matter?” They surfed through public high school because they knew that, deep down, this wasn’t it. And even on the surface level too, they knew: why in the world would someone need to know the Pythagorean Theorem for life…?

Today I’m writing about how a student of life is very different from a student in the modern day American public school classroom. A student of life fails. A student of life learns not from their successes so much as from their failures. A student of life dreams. They get things messy from time to time. They also aren’t afraid of making mistakes. They strive for a purpose-driven life, not perfectionism, and recognize that a really, really good life is found on the other side of the big risk they’ve been avoiding.

Thomas Edison, as you all may know, invented the light bulb, an extraordinary invention. He also failed at creating a working light bulb tens of thousands of times. He said, “I have not failed 10,000 times—I’ve successfully found 10,000 ways that will not work.” Failure, thus, is paramount to success. And with it, comes a very powerful and incredible mindset shift for us.

We need failure in our lives. We should, actually, invite it!

As a straight A student (always) in a public school classroom, I succeeded at the system established in the Industrial Revolution, over 100 years ago. And I also have been “failing” at life. My bank account does not reflect the life I want to be living at the moment. And, it also does to some extent. Why? Because I’m actually living.

About a year and a half ago, I invested in a program for my entrepreneurial pursuits. I was curious to start an FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) business and so I purchased a program to help me walk through that. Immediately after the transaction I regretted it. But, I kid you not, almost as soon after that thought crossed my mind, so did another one: “Congratulations, you’re living.”

To this day I’ve not continued with that FBA business. However, I have remembered the way that moment made me feel. It was about me proving to myself I had what it took to bet on myself. To believe in myself. To fail, get back up, and try again. Oftentimes that’s what failure is anyways - betting on yourself. I’d argue that’s honestly probably exactly what it is.

Today is a good day to learn how to be a student of life. Fail. Fail hard and fail well. And know that on the other end of failure is getting back up again. And that’s where the real triumph and success in life is found. May it be that you hear in the risks you’re taking, “congratulations, you’re living.”