In Alexus Yeakel’s essay “Failure Is Awesome” the often-feared prospect of figuratively falling on one’s face is characterized instead to be a necessary if unpleasant part of not only the academic world but also the rest of life itself.
I agreed with just about every word spoken by Yeakel in this piece. I have learned throughout my life both by listening to others and through my own experiences that failure is undoubtedly the most important teacher in everybody’s life. Failure means that we did something wrong, which gives us an easy opportunity to see what we did wrong. The hard part is usually actually fixing what was done wrong, but I have also learned that if something is hard then it is probably not worth doing in the first place.
In terms of writing, failure is just as important as it is everywhere else. Almost every famous writer (including the example from the text Stephen King) had to fail over and over before they finally could get published. This brings about the old adage that it is not the most talented people that end up being successful, but the most patient. Furthermore, I have always lived and written using the prospect that a bad thing that actually exists is infinitely better than a good thing that only exists in theory. Most would-be writers get fucked up not by a lack of talent, but by a fear of putting themselves out there. It is scary to show your work to others because they may judge it negatively, but this is a necessary part of being a writer. Although negative judgment is naturally discouraging, it really is just a manner of showing a writer how they can improve what they have written.
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